Bruce Aylward, head of the WHO-China Joint Mission on COVID-19`s foreign expert panel, said the WHO has been on the ground in Wuhan and has worked closely with the Chinese government.

At a joint news conference in Beijing on Monday, the senior advisor to the WHO`s director-general praised China`s efforts to update and disclose the information to the world and responded to skeptics about the number of cases. It takes a while to figure out and numbers bounce around, he said. That`s not unusual.

He said what really matters is the trend instead of the numbers.

"If we go back and look over time with China, with all the different information, the trends have been incredibly clear and consistent." Aylward said.