COVID-19: China’s infection progress on the agenda at the WHO coronavirus meeting
In Geneva, a spokesperson for the WHO confirmed during a scheduled press conference that Chinese scientists have been invited to participate in a meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 (TAG).
A 30-strong expert group was created in May 2020 to advise the UN health agency and Member States on coronavirus changes and variations. The last meeting of the group was in October.
In an earlier statement, the WHO said it had invited Chinese scientists to present detailed data on the respiratory system to an expert meeting at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.
Nothing is left to chance
The development follows a “high-level” meeting last Friday between the WHO and Chinese health officials, who were asked to share more information about China’s COVID-19 strategy.
“Senior officials from the National Health Commission of China and the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention briefed the WHO on China’s development strategy and practices in the areas of epidemiology, surveillance of variants, vaccination, home care- medicine, communication and R&D,” WHO explained.
Appellate division
The UN agency specifically called on Chinese authorities to strengthen virus tracking, hospital management and impact assessment of its COVID-19 operation.
“WHO also asked for regular sharing of specific and real-time data on the epidemiological situation“, he noted, “with more genetic data, data on infection with hospitals, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and deaths – and data on delivered vaccines and vaccination status, especially in vulnerable people and those over 60 years old.”
Value of boosters
In addition to providing support to the UN health center in these areas, the WHO statement also emphasized the importance of vaccination and boosters “to protect against severe disease and death for people at high risk” .
Organization also offered to help combat vaccine skepticism in China, where it is reported to be out of a long “zero COVID” policy.
Tedros stresses ‘importance of transparency’
Inside a tweet Last Friday night, the Director General of the UN agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that his team “has reiterated the importance of transparency, and accurate sharing of data to develop accurate risk assessments and to provide effective feedback.”
In addition to providing UN health agency support in these areas, the WHO also offered to help address vaccine skepticism in China, where it has reportedly moved away from a longstanding “zero COVID” policy.
