Ex-NZ PM Helen Clark to head World Health Organisation Covid response panel

Helen Clark will lead a World Health Organisation investigation into how COVID-19 was handled on a global scale.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark. Picture: AFP

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark will serve as the co-chair of the World Health Organisation’s independent panel examining the origin of the coronavirus outbreak and the global response to the pandemic.

Scott Morrison was one of the leading global figures pushing for the investigation with 145 nations co-sponsoring a resolution at the recent World Health Assembly Meeting to establish the independent panel.

Former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will also serve as co-chair along with Ms Clark, with a special session of the WHO executive board on COVID-19 to convene in September.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Health Minister Greg Hunt issued a statement welcoming the announcement of the “independent panel for pandemic preparedness and response.”

“Australia has been working closely with the WHO and key partners to maintain momentum and deliver on the World Health Assembly’s mandate,” they said. “Australia looks forward to working with the panel and the international community to ensure this important evaluation helps to strengthen the WHO and prevent and mitigate future pandemics.”

The WHO has vowed to conduct an “honest evaluation” of how the COVID-19 was handled on a global scale. On Thursday, the organisation announced it would set up an independent panel to investigate government’s response to the pandemic.

“The magnitude of this pandemic, which has touched virtually everyone in the world, clearly deserves a commensurate evaluation, an honest evaluation,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

It follows criticism by US President Donald Trump of the global agency’s role in the crisis.

The panel will provide an interim report to an annual meeting of health ministers in November and a final report in May 2021.

Record-breaking coronavirus cases and deaths in a number of US deaths have dulled hopes of economic recovery. More than 60,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Wednesday – the single greatest increase by any country since the pandemic began. Deaths also rose by more than 900 for the second day in a row.

On Thursday, Florida announced nearly 9,000 new COVID-19 cases and 120 deaths – a record daily increase in lives lost. California and Texas also announced record death numbers on Wednesday.

Russia reported 6,509 new cases of the virus on Thursday, pushing its nationwide tally to 707,301 – the fourth largest in the world. The national COVID-19 taskforced said 176 people have died in the past twenty-four hours.

Globally, more than 12 million people have been infected with the virus and more than 548,000 people have died.