The World Bank told Reuters that these products and product codes predate COVID. They have been used since 2017 - not in relation to COVID-19 but labelled “in much more technical terms that did not mention COVID”. In April 2020, the products were re-labelled amid the pandemic and the WITS updated its product descriptions accordingly, including those attached to the data from 2017 and 2018, even if the products had not been used in relation to COVID-19 at the time.
The World Bank said, “In April, given the newfound importance of these products in diagnosing and treating COVID-19, the WHO and the World Customs issued a list (
here &
here) of these key products to make it easier to track them—assigning COVID-related descriptions/labels to each of them. For the same reason (to facilitate easier tracking), the WITS team created a special section using this list (as well as the new WHO/WCO labels/descriptions).”
However, as of Sept. 7, 2020, the COVID-related product descriptions no longer appear on the WITS website pages screenshotted in the Facebook posts. The World Bank told Reuters that in light of misinterpretations, they decided to change the labels again “to make it clear that these were products that predated COVID-19.”
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