Taiwan, WHO in new spat over 'warning' email

The WHO has said the email it received from Taipei made no mention of human-to-human transmission. Photo: Reuters

Tension flared again on Saturday as Taiwan accused the World Health Organisation of playing word games in a dispute over details it sought in an email querying if the new coronavirus could be transmitted between people.



Taiwan is not a WHO member, because of objections from Beijing.



Such an approach, Taiwan says, deprived it of timely information to fight the virus, and it accused the WHO of having ignored its communications early in the pandemic, which has infected 1.6 million people and killed 100,000 worldwide.



Last month, Taiwan said it had received no reply from the WHO to a December 31 query for information on the outbreak in Wuhan, including whether it could be transmitted between people.



The WHO has said the email it received made no mention of human-to-human transmission.



In Taipei on Saturday, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung quoted the text of the email written in English that the government sent to the WHO.



"News resources today indicate that at least seven atypical pneumonia cases were reported in Wuhan, China," Chen said, reading the email.



"Their health authorities replied to the media that the cases were believed not to be Sars [Severe acute respiratory syndrome], however the samples are still under examination, and cases have been isolated for treatment," he continued.



"I would greatly appreciate if you have relevant information to share with us."



In a statement on Saturday, the WHO said, "We have asked how they communicated this to us, because we are only aware of that one email that makes no mention of human-to-human transmission, but they haven't replied."



Chen said any medical professional would know the circumstances requiring isolation, and added that the WHO was quibbling over the wording. (Reuters)