The development comes following the WHO’s public praise of Bei Jing for what they called a speedy response to the novel coronavirus back in January. At that time, the UN agency called China’s work and commitment to transparency ‘very impressive, and ‘beyond words’.

However in March, the WHO declared a pandemic that was catalyzed by covid-19 after it spread to dozens of countries. To date, the virus has killed over 538,000 people worldwide.

The government of Bayan Nur, the Chinese city that initially reported the bubonic plague case, issued an early epidemic warning on Sunday after identifying the shepherd as a suspected patient.