Washington - US President
Donald Trump on Tuesday halted funding to the World Health
Organization over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic,
drawing condemnation from infectious disease experts as the
global death toll continued to mount.
Trump, who has reacted angrily to criticism of his
administration's response to the worst epidemic in a century,
has become increasingly hostile towards the WHO.
The Geneva-based organisation had promoted China's
"disinformation" about the virus that likely led to a wider
outbreak than otherwise would have occurred, Trump said.
"The WHO failed in this basic duty and must be held
accountable," Trump told a White House news conference on
Tuesday.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrumpis halting funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess WHO's role in mismanaging the Coronavirus outbreak. pic.twitter.com/jTrEf4WWj0
— The White House (@WhiteHouse)
Nearly 2 million people globally have been infected and more
than 124,000 have died since the disease emerged in China late
last year, according to a Reuters tally.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it
was not the time to reduce resources for the WHO.
"Now is the time for unity and for the international
community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and
its shattering consequences," he said in a statement.
The United States is the biggest overall donor to the WHO,
contributing more than $400 million in 2019, roughly 15% of its
budget.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he sympathised
with Trump's criticisms of the WHO, especially its
"unfathomable" support of re-opening China's "wet markets",
where freshly slaughtered animals are sold and where the
coronavirus first appeared in the city of Wuhan late last year.
"But that said, the WHO also as an organisation does a lot
of important work including here in our region in the Pacific
and we work closely with them," Morrison told an Australian
radio station on Wednesday.
"We are not going to throw the baby out of with the
bathwater here, but they are also not immune from criticism and
immune from doing things better."
More than 2,200 died in the United States alone on Tuesday,
a record toll according to a Reuters tally, even as the country
debated how to reopen its economy.
New York City, the US city hardest hit by the pandemic,
revised its death toll sharply up to more than 10,000 on
Tuesday, to include victims presumed to have perished from the
lung disease but never tested.
US health care advocacy group Protect Our Care said
Trump's WHO funding withdrawal was "a transparent attempt by
President Trump to distract from his history downplaying the
severity of the coronavirus crisis and his administration’s
failure to prepare our nation,"
"To be sure, the World Health Organization is not without
fault but it is beyond irresponsible to cut its funding at the
height of a global pandemic," said Leslie Dach, the chair of
Protect Our Care.
After weeks of lockdowns in several European countries, the
WHO said the number of new cases were tailing off in some areas,
such as Italy and Spain, but outbreaks were growing in Britain
and Turkey.
"The overall world outbreak - 90% of cases are coming from
Europe and the United States of America. So we are certainly not
seeing the peak yet," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a
briefing in Geneva.
India extended a lockdown on its 1.3 billion people until at
least May 3 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said economic
sacrifices were needed to save lives as the number of
coronavirus cases exceeded 10,000.
New cases in mainland China dropped to 46, compared to 89 a
day earlier, Chinese health officials reported on Wednesday,
with one further death. Most cases were from overseas travellers
returning from Russia.
Asian share markets edged higher as China moved again to
cushion its economy, cutting a key medium-term interest rate to
record lows and paving the way for a similar reduction in
benchmark loan rates.
The global economy is expected to shrink by 3% this year,
the International Monetary Fund said, marking the steepest
downturn since the Great Depression.
Trump, who has declared he will decide when to lift U.S.
lockdowns, suggested some Democratic state governors were
"mutineers" after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would
refuse any order that risked reigniting the outbreak.
Trump's top infectious disease adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci,
said the president's May 1 target for restarting the economy was
"overly optimistic".
Airlines have been among the hardest hit as borders have
closed and citizens have been told to stay at home to slow the
spread.
Chinese airlines reported a total loss of $4.8 billion in
the first quarter, the country's aviation regulator said.
The US Treasury Department said major passenger airlines
have agreed in principle to a $25 billion rescue package,
ensuring airline workers have jobs until October while the
industry battles its biggest-ever crisis.
In New Zealand, where a strict lockdown has limited the
number of cases and deaths, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
announced she, her ministers and public service chief executives
will take a 20% pay cut for the next six months given the
economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.