The United States, which accuses China of having delayed warning the rest of the world of the appearance of the new coronavirus, suggested Thursday that Beijing may have seen the first cases as early as November, and not in December as the Chinese authorities say. "You will recall that the first cases were known to the Chinese government perhaps as early as November, certainly mid-December, and they took time to report this to the rest of the world, including the World Organization for health (WHO), " US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo said on local Washington radio.
China disclosed to WHO an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei province, on December 31. There are then officially 44 cases identified, including eleven people who have contracted a severe form of pneumonia. WHO first publicly communicated the virus on January 4, but only declared a "public health emergency of international concern" on January 30.
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Beijing has always claimed to have shared the information very quickly, but the administration of Donald Trump accuses it of having delayed, and of having concealed the seriousness of the disease, which has allowed Washington according to the epidemic to spread around the world and kill tens of thousands of people.
The American authorities also reproach the WHO for having placed too much faith in China, and for having neglected an alert from Taiwan which would have warned as of the end of December of a probable human transmission of the virus.
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