WHO ignored warning for Italy: Expert
ROME/GENEVA: An author of a withdrawn World Health Organization (WHO) report into Italy’s coronavirus response had warned his bosses in May that people could die and the UN agency could suffer “catastrophic” reputational damage if it allowed political concerns to suppress the document, according to emails seen by AP.
The report examined how the Italian government and health system reacted after the country became the epicentre of the European outbreak in late February - with real-time data and case studies of what worked and what didn’t aimed at helping other countries prepare as the coronavirus spread.
The agency took it down a day after it was posted on its website, prompting the official who coordinated the work to appeal directly to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on May 28 and warn that the report’s disappearance was undermining the WHO’s credibility.
The handling of the report could cause a “scandal of huge proportion - in a delicate moment for the UN health agency with the forthcoming Covid-19 investigation,” wrote Francesco Zambon, the WHO’s chief field coordinator for Italy and its regions during the crisis.
Meanwhile, Italy will be placed under nationwide lockdown for much of the Christmas and New Year holiday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday, as the government looks to prevent a fresh surge in coronavirus cases.
In Australia, a quarter million people in Sydney’s northern beach suburbs were ordered on Saturday into a strict lockdown until Christmas eve to help contain a coronavirus cluster.
WHO team to tour Wuhan in first week of January The head of emergencies at the WHO said a team of international experts looking into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic will travel to China the first week of January. Michael Ryan said there will be quarantine arrangements for the team, which will visit the suspected site of the outbreak in Wuhan.
In Turkey, a deadly fire broke out on Saturday at an ICU treating Covid-19 patients after an oxygen cylinder exploded, killing eight people. The fire took place at Sanko University Hospital unit in Gaziantep. A hospital statement identified the victims as being 56-85 years old.
Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic said on Friday he has tested positive for Covid-19, a week after he attended an EU summit in Brussels. The summit is believed to be where French President Emmanuel Macron caught the virus, leading a host of leaders and officials to go into self-isolation.