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15-04-2020
WASHINGTON/ NEW YORK/ GENEVA: American President Donald Trump said that he had instructed his administration to suspend funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, in a move that drew immediate condemnation.
Trump, at a White House news conference, claimed the WHO had “failed in its basic duty and it must be held accountable”.
He accused the group of promoting China’s “disinformation” about the virus that likely led to a wider outbreak of the virus than otherwise would have occurred.
Trump said the US would continue to engage with the WHO in pursuit of what he calls meaningful reforms. He added that the “hold” on funding would continue while the US reviews the organisation’s warnings about the coronavirus and China.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was “not the time” to be reducing funds to the WHO or any other organisation fighting the pandemic.
“Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences,” Guterres said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump is cutting funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the pandemic. The US is the biggest contributor to the WHO budget.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the global economy is expected to shrink by 3 percent this year – the biggest contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Italy announced the smallest number of new cases of coronavirus in a month, with daily cases of 2,972. More than 21,000 people have died from the disease in Italy.
Some 1.97 million people around the world have now been confirmed to have the new coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 125,500 have died, while nearly 473,000 have recovered.
The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said now is “not the time” to be cutting funding to the WHO and the medical community has also criticised the move.
Dr Patrice Harris, president of the American Medical Association called it “a dangerous step in the wrong direction that will not make defeating COVID-19 easier.”
Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security said while reforms might be needed it as not the time.
“It’s not the middle of a pandemic that you do this type of thing,” he said.
Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center
“This virus doesn’t need passports. In a few short months it has travelled to all of the continents of the world except Antarctica. If there were ever an event that showed us how we need to work tougher as a global community, this is it.”
US coronavirus deaths has risen by at least 2,228, a single-day record, to top 28,300, according to a Reuters tally, as officials debated how to reopen the economy without reigniting the outbreak.
The United States, with the world’s third-largest population, passed a second milestone late on Tuesday with over 600,000 reported cases, three times more than any other country. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
