TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom on Monday doubled down on his denial that Taiwan had raised alarm bells about human-to-human transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).

During a media briefing on April 20, a reporter from French newspaper Le Monde asked for the organization's response to allegations that the WHO did not act on a warning about the danger of human-to-human transmission sent via email by Taiwanese health officials on Dec. 31.

Tedros claimed Taiwan had requested clarification of a report coming from Wuhan about atypical pneumonia cases, saying that "Taiwan did not report any human-to-human transmission." He stressed that Taiwan had been asking for clarification of the Chinese report like "any other entity" and that the email included "nothing else."

However, the Taiwanese government says it never claimed it was reporting the outbreak of the disease in Wuhan. Instead, it maintains it pointed out that there were signs of human-to-human transmission of the virus and that it had requested verification that this was the case.

On April 11, Taiwan's CDC explained that it had used the term "atypical pneumonia," referring to SARS, a disease also caused by a coronavirus. It stated that it had mentioned that patients had been "isolated for treatment" and that public health officials "can discern from this wording that there was a real possibility of human-to-human transmission of the disease."

The CDC said that because there had not yet been cases of the disease in Taiwan, it could not yet conclusively state that there was human-to-human transmission of the virus. The center said it contacted both the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO IHR focal point to gather more information. However, the WHO only responded with a short message stating that Taiwan's information would be "forwarded to expert colleagues," and China only issued a press release.

As a result, Taiwan was unable to receive confirmation through WHO or Chinese channels that human-to-human transmission was taking place. Therefore, the government went ahead and launched enhanced border control and quarantine measures "based on the assumption that human-to-human transmission was in fact occurring."

On Jan. 14, two weeks after Taiwan's email was sent, the WHO released a now-infamous tweet saying it had not found any evidence of human-to-human transmission of the disease.

It was not until Jan. 24 that the WHO finally acknowledged the disease could be transmitted from one person to another. It belatedly declared a global pandemic on March 11.

Meanwhile, a petition calling on Tedros to resign has nearly reached one million signatures. "We strongly think Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is not fit for his role as WHO Director General. We call for the Immediate Resignation of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus," the petition reads.