BEIJING — China promptly shared information on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the early stage of the epidemic, a chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on May 19.

China's information-sharing with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other countries had been carried out in an early, quick and transparent manner since the outbreak, Wu Zunyou said.

He made the remarks at a press conference of the State Council's inter-agency task force for the COVID-19 epidemic response.

On Jan 3, China informed the WHO and relevant countries about the outbreak of pneumonia, of which the cause was unknown, the epidemiologist said.

After China succeeded in isolating the first novel coronavirus strain on Jan 7, it immediately shared with the WHO and relevant countries the progress in determining the cause of the viral pneumonia, Wu said.

When the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus was known, China submitted it to the WHO and shared globally at the earliest time possible, based on which countries around the world can produce test kits, he added.