American president halts WHO funding over coronavirus

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 mounted.

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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 One World Trade Center is illuminated for the ongoing effort to combat coronavirus in New York. File/Reuters

"The WHO failed in this basic duty and must be held accountable," Trump told a White House news conference on Tuesday.

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.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was not the time to reduce resources for the WHO.

People wait for their flight as they wear protective mask against coronavirus at the airport in Malaga, Spain. File/Reuters

"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, and live, animals are sold.

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The coronavirus is believed to have emerged from such a market 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.

"We are not going to throw the baby out of with the bathwater here, but they are also not immune from criticism."

More than 2,200 people died in the United States on Tuesday, a record toll according to a Reuters tally, even as it debated how to reopen its economy.

New York City, the US city hardest hit by the outbreak, revised its death toll sharply up to more than 10,000, to include victims presumed to have died of the lung disease but never tested.

US health advocacy group Protect Our Care said Trump's WHO funding withdrawal was "a transparent attempt ... 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 group's chair.

Reuters