Officials from the WHO were questioned on Thursday about Taiwan’s exclusion from the organization and its global disease prevention efforts amid escalating fears over the spread of a new coronavirus that originated in China.
At an international news conference after a two-day WHO emergency meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss the deadly new coronavirus, the agency was asked whether it would consider accepting Taiwan as a member and would exchange information about the virus, as diseases know no borders.
WHO Health Emergencies Program executive director Michael Ryan said that the organization works “very closely with technical partners in China, Taiwan,” referring to Taiwan.
Photo: AFP
He said that during the SARS outbreak in Taiwan in 2003, the WHO provided technical support to Taiwan.
“Nobody would deny necessary public health assistance in that situation,” Ryan said.
He added that he believes Taiwanese authorities were working very closely with those in China.
“I believe there have been joint missions and joint approaches to the response, so I would characterize, from our perspective, that there is technical cooperation going on between provinces in China, and between WHO and any of those entities that seek our assistance,” Ryan said.
Taiwan was excluded from the two-day meeting, which was attended by all other countries that had reported cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
Taiwan was not invited to attend, a decision that drew wide criticism of the world body.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Wednesday urged the WHO not to exclude Taiwan from global efforts to contain the virus, and called on China to fulfill its responsibility as a member of the global society by providing adequate information to Taiwan about the disease’s spread.
As of Friday, a total of 168 suspected cases of the new coronavirus had been reported in Taiwan. Three were confirmed as having the virus, while 42 cases were ruled out, the Central Epidemic Command Center said.
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