Unites States of America has initiated its official withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Trump administration has officially initiated USA’s withdrawal from WHO after severe disagreements with the international body over the issue of COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
UN Secretary General’s spokesperson – Stéphane Dujarric has confirmed that the USA has begun its one-year withdrawal period from WHO, which will be completed on 6 July 2021.
The development comes as US President Donald Trump has been at odds with WHO over its handling of COVID-19 pandemic. Mr Trump, on multiple times, criticized WHO for its ‘pro-China’ and refusal to blame China for the coronavirus pandemic.
Back in April, Donald Trump was quotes saying that the WHO needs to undertake ‘substantive improvements’ for the continuation of flow of funds from USA.
Read More: Trump may freeze WHO funding permanently
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has criticized Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the WHO, claiming to restore USA’s membership of WHO if he wins the upcoming 2020 presidential elections.
Prior to this President Trump had threatened to cut back the funding to WHO as USA is the largest contributor to WHO and its financial assistance provided around 15 per cent of the total budget of WHO amounting to US$ 400 million in 2019.
It is imperative to know that USA has reported the highest COVID-19 tally and deaths with more than 3 million cases and 130,000 + casualties respectively.
Meanwhile the global coronavirus tally has exceeded 11.6 million cases with more than 540,000 deaths so far.
