Criticized on its management of the Covid-19 epidemic by experts appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO), China conceded, Tuesday January 19, having to "strive to do better".

The country, repeatedly criticized for not having immediately alerted its population or imposed containment at the very beginning of the pandemic, when human-to-human transmissions were not yet confirmed, however defended its management of the epidemic.

The supposed lack of transparency of the authorities in Wuhan (center), the first city where the coronavirus was spotted at the end of 2019, and the summons by the police of local whistleblowers, accused of "spreading rumors", also fueled the reviews.

In July, the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced the creation of an independent group to establish "an honest assessment" of the management of the crisis in the world and "to learn from it".

This team of 13 experts is co-chaired by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

First signs

In its second report presented Tuesday to the WHO, the group considers in particular that "it would have been possible to act faster on the basis of the first signs".

"It is clear that public health measures could have been applied more vigorously by the local and national Chinese authorities in January" 2020, underline its authors.

When asked, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying replied that Beijing had reacted quickly by confining Wuhan as early as January 23, 2020, which "reduced infections and deaths".

China has largely contained the epidemic on its soil since last spring.

But the pandemic has now claimed more than 2 million lives elsewhere in the world.

"We must of course strive to do better. Any country, not just China, but also the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan or any other country, must also strive to do better", Hua Chunying said.

"As the first country to sound the global epidemic alarm, China made swift and decisive decisions, even though it only had incomplete information" on the virus, she said.

A team of WHO experts is also currently in China, to try to trace the origins of Covid-19, as soon as the two-week quarantine to which its members are subject has elapsed.

With AFP

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