Ireland to quadruple its contributions to WHO after Trump halts US funding

Days after US President Donald Trump said he would halt US' contribution to the World Health Organisation (WHO) accusing the global health agency of siding with China, Ireland announced that it would quadruple its funding to the UN body. According to reports, Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney on April 16 said that his country would donate €9.5m (£8.3m) to WHO this year to help its coronavirus response. 

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Commenting on the importance of WHO, Simon Coveney said that there are so many countries that rely on UN expertise and its capacity for saving lives. Coveney also called Trump's decision of halting the UN funding 'indefensible' in the midst of a pandemic. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked Simon Coveney and the people of Ireland for the donation and continued support. Tedros took to his official Twitter handle to appreciate Ireland's gesture at the time of a global health crisis. 

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The United States in 2019 had donated $400 million to the World Health Organisation, which is about 15 per cent of the total funding the UN body receives. The Trump administration has been criticising the WHO's role amid the global pandemic accusing it of favouring China. The United States feels that WHO is not doing much to press China on sharing all information related to COVID-19 and also that it took too much time to declare the outbreak a pandemic. 

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Coronavirus outbreak

The coronavirus outbreak has infected over 2.33 million people globally and has killed nearly 1,60,000 patients since it first broke out in December 2019. The virus is believed to have originated from a seafood market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the initial epicentre of the disease, where animals were reportedly being traded illegally. Currently, the United States, Italy, Spain, France and the United Kingdom are the most affected countries in the world with a recorded death toll of 14,000 and above.

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(Image Credit: AP)