While the fact that it was communicable did come out from China and WHO on Jan. 21, WHO didn’t call it a pandemic until March 11 and they were definitely downplaying it on Jan. 21.
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) asked World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to suppress news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the German intelligence agency BND found, according to a report by German magazine Der Spiegel.
During a conversation on Jan. 21, Xi reportedly asked Tedros not to announce that the virus could be transmitted between humans and to delay any declaration of a coronavirus pandemic.
It took until the end of January before the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak needed to receive international attention.