US President Donald Trump has threatened to permanently halt US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) and quit an organisation he earlier derided as a “puppet of China” in a letter to the agency’s director general that he shared on Twitter.
Earlier on Monday he attacked the WHO as a “puppet of China”. The president froze US funding for the WHO in April.
The WHO chief has promised an independent review of the global pandemic response, after countries at a virtual meeting of the World Health Assembly called for a probe.
The US has set aside $11bn to ramp up coronavirus testing as the country reopens.
Globally, there have been more than 4.8 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 318,500 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 1.8 million people have recovered.