Claim: World Health Organisation declares new COVID-19 outbreak
Source: GhanaFact WhatsApp chatbot
Verdict: False
Researched by Gifty Danso
The GhanaFact WhatsApp chatbot has been alerted to a claim that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced a new COVID-19 outbreak in China.
A user shared an image of WHO chief, Tedros Ghebreyesus with a headline that read: “World Health Organization Declares New Covid-19 Outbreak In China As A Global Health Emergency.”
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Claim shared by user to the GhanaFact Chatbot
GhanaFact traced the claim and found that it was shared in a news article published by Nkonkonsa.com on January 6, 2025. Online news portals like GhanaWeb also published a news article on the same subject on January 6, 2025, but attributed the source to Spencer Wan Blog.
This fact-check will verify the authenticity of the claim.
Fact-check
Investigations carried out by GhanaFact show that the World Health Organisation has not announced the emergence of new COVID-19 in China or any part of the world.
According to our findings, since the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on January 30, 2020, no new such announcements have been made on the health matter.
“Cases of novel coronavirus (nCoV) were first detected in China in December 2019, with the virus spreading rapidly to other countries across the world. This led WHO to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020 and to characterize the outbreak as a pandemic on 11 March 2020,” WHO said on its website.
On May 5, 2023, WHO officially declared an end to Covid-19 as a global health emergency.
In response to the claim, the Coordinator of the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance (AIRA) of the World Health Organisation, Elodie Ho, debunked the content of the articles as false.
“Using old information on COVID-19 when it was first declared a PHIEC in 2020. Even the quote attributed to Dr Tedros is from 2020 and is out of context. This is not an innocent mistake, this is disinformation,” she told GhanaFact.
GhanaFact also monitored WHO communications from January 5, 2025, to January 7, 2025, over the duration, no announcement was made concerning a new COVID-19 outbreak in China, except for the trends of acute respiratory infection, including human metapneumovirus (hMPV).
However, the WHO says hMPV is not a new virus. “Human metapneumovirus hMPV is NOT a new virus. First identified in 2001, it has been in the human population for a long time. It is a common virus that circulates in winter and spring. It usually causes respiratory symptoms similar to the common cold.”
Verdict
From the above, the claim that there is an outbreak of new COVID-19, is rated false.
