The President of the United States, Donald Trump has sent a letter to the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) threatening to pull US funding permanently over Covid-19.
The letter outlines a 30-day deadline for the body to commit to “substantive improvements” or risk losing millions and US membership altogether.
President Trump decried that UN’s health body is a “Puppet of China”.
The letter which was addressed to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, criticises the stages of the body’s response since December.
Trump himself who faces re-election this year has been criticised for his handling of the pandemic, but has never failed to blame China for trying to cover up the outbreak and has accused the WHO of failing to hold Beijing to account.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Mr Trump was trying to mislead the public, smear China and “shift the blame for [the US’s] own incompetent response”.
The US has more than 1.5 million of the world’s 4.8 million confirmed cases of coronavirus so far, with more than 90,000 deaths.
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