….Pledges Transparency as It Promises To Review COVID-19 Handling
By Our Reporter
Abuja – The World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for strong support for the Organisation at this critical time, saying that coronavirus risk is high and there is a long road to travel.
The is also as Tedros yesterday said it would initiate an independent evaluation of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic at the “earliest appropriate moment” and vowed transparency and accountability.
“We all have lessons to learn from the pandemic. Every country and every organisation must examine its response and learn from its experience. WHO is committed to transparency, accountability and continuous improvement,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told its annual ministerial assembly.
Tedros thanked early high-level speakers for their “strong support for WHO at this critical time” and said that the review must encompass responsibility of “all actors in good faith”.
“The risk remains high and we have a long road to travel,” Tedros said. Preliminary serological tests in some countries showed that at most 20 per cent of populations had contracted the disease and “in most places less than 10 per cent,” he said.
WHO has been accused recently of acting too slowly to sound the alarm about the coronavirus with US president, Donald Trump unleashing a tirade against the organisation.
Others have also raised concerns about how the organization has responded to the outbreak. In Japan, Taro Aso, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, recently noted that some people have started referring to the World Health Organization as the “Chinese Health Organization” because of what he described as its close ties to Beijing. Taiwanese officials say the WHO ignored its early warnings about the virus because China refuses to allow Taiwan, a self-governing island it claims as its territory, to become a member.
Critics say the WHO has been too trusting of the Chinese government, which initially tried to conceal the outbreak in Wuhan. Others have faulted the organization and its leader, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for moving too slowly in declaring a global health emergency.
