WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the US funding of the World Health Organisation will be halted because he said that it had covered up the seriousness of the COVID-19 outbreak in China before it spread around the world.

Trump said that a review is conducted to asses the WHO's role in covering up the spread of coronavirus. He said that the administration will conduct a thorough investigation. He said that American taxpayers provide in between USD 400 million to 500 million per year to WHO.

President @realDonaldTrump is 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) April 14, 2020

Trump said at a White House press conference, “Today I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”

Trump further added that had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China's lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death; this would have saved the lives of people and there would not have been so much of economic breakdown.

The deadly coronavirus took its birth in Wuhan, China over three months ago and it claimed the lives of at least 1,26,539 across the globe. The total number of confirmed cases in the world stands at 19,79,477.

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