China says it immediately notified the World Health Organisation of the coronavirus outbreak

China said on Sunday it had immediately notified the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other relevant parties of the coronavirus outbreak.

In a report released on Sunday outlining China’s actions in fighting the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese State Council Information Office said: “China immediately notified the World Health Organisation and relevant countries and regional organisations of the outbreak.”

The report added that China “shared the whole genome sequence and specific primers and probes for detection of COVID-19, and regularly notified the World Health Organisation and relevant countries with Epidemic information.”

China has been widely criticised by several countries across the world, particularly the United States, for allegedly withholding information about the outbreak in its early days.

According to the report, the Chinese National Health Commission “preliminarily confirmed that the novel coronavirus was the pathogen of the epidemic” on January 8, and the government had been updating the WHO daily since January 11, sharing the genome sequence with the WHO on the following day, January 12.