China denies delay in sharing corona data with WHO

Beijing: China has responded to a report citing internal documents from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that suggest the country was slow to offer up crucial data on the novel coronavirus including its genetic structure, leaving WHO officials frustrated by the delay.

Responding to the report, which was published by AP, China's Foreign Ministry said it was "inconsistent with the facts".

"I don't know where these 'internal documents' come from, but I can assure you that certain reports were seriously inconsistent with facts," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a media briefing, according to Global Times.

Lijian went on to provide a timeline of China's coronavirus response, stating that the country had reported the epidemic to the WHO on January 3 at a time "when it had not yet figured out what pathogen caused the epidemic".

"China's coronavirus response is open to the world, with clear data and facts that can stand the test of time and history," Zhao said.

The genetic code was shared on January 12. At the time, WHO said that it was "reassured of the quality of the ongoing investigations and the response measures implemented in Wuhan, and the commitment to share information regularly."

Throughout January, WHO publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus and thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus "immediately." This, despite evidence that early reports of the outbreak were covered up, including the penalisation of a Wuhan doctor who had warned about the virus as early as December—and who later died of the virus in hospital.