Geneva – Head of the World Health Organisation Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that the decision made US President Donald Trump to pull funding for the agency was a regrettable one. He said that now is the time for the world to unite.
Trumps’s decision was prompted by condemnation by world leaders as global coronavirus infections passed the 2 million mark.
The US is currently the world’s worst-affected country and is death toll had reached 30, 000 on Wednesday, an amount that has doubled in a week and has set a single-day increase for the second day in a row.
Data shows that new US cases have been rising by about 25, 000 a day. This is down from a peak of 35, 000.
Trump said he is planning to announce guidelines to reopen the economy on Thursday. After a hostile reaction towards WHO, Trump accused the organisation of promoting Chinese “disinformation” about the virus, saying this had probably worsened the outbreak.
Director-General of Who said the US “has been a long-standing and generous friend of the WHO, and we hope it will continue to do so.”
“WHO is reviewing the impact on our work of any withdrawal of US funding and we will work with partners to fill any gaps and ensure our work continues uninterrupted,” added Tedros.
Leave a Reply