Trump attacks WHO for Jan 14 'no Covid human-to-human transfer' claim; makes it personal

United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday again lashed out at the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the Coronavirus pandemic. In his daily briefing at the White House, Trump accused WHO of lying and said that the global health body made a statement on January 14 that there was no human-to-human transmission of Coronavirus, while there was. He added that in many ways, "they (WHO) were wrong."

'On many ways, they were wrong'

"World Health Organization made a statement on January 14 that there was no human-to-human transmission, while there was. They criticized me very strongly when I said that we were going to shut down flights coming in from China. On many ways, they were wrong," said the US President.

WHO on January 14 had tweeted that there was no human-to-human transmission of the Coronavirus on a statement based on erroneous information from the Chinese communist government.

Trump attacks 'China-centric' WHO

Donald Trump on Tuesday accused the World Health Organization (WHO) of becoming "China-centric" during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and said he would put a hold on America's funding to WHO. This comes after Trump took to Twitter earlier on Tuesday to proclaim that the global health body "really blew it."

"We're going to put a hold on money spent on the WHO. We're going to put a very powerful hold on it and we're going to see. It's a great thing if it works. But when they call every shot wrong, that's no good," Trump told reporters.

Trump said his administration is going to look into the US funding to the WHO. "We give a majority of the money that they get, and it's much more than the USD 58 million. USD 58 million is a small portion of what they've got over the years. Sometimes they get much more than that. Sometimes it's for programs that they're doing, and it's much bigger numbers. If the programs are good, that's great as far as we're concerned," he added.

READ | COVID-19: Donald Trump says major chunk of hydroxychloroquine doses came from India

READ | 'Not just helping India but humanity': Trump thanks PM Modi for hydroxychloroquine supply

The United States on Wednesday surpassed 400,000 novel coronavirus cases, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. The pandemic has now claimed the lives of at least 12,936 people in the United States, which leads the world in the number of confirmed infections with 401,116, by the Baltimore-based school's count.

READ | 'Would have won almost every state': Trumps responds to Bernie Sanders' exit

READ | COVID-19: WHO denies being 'China-centric' after Trump's allegations

(With agency inputs)