No special preference given to China, says WHO

Dr Bruce Aylward defended WHO recommendations to keep Chinese borders open, saying the mainland had worked hard to contain the outbreak. File photo: AFP

World Health Organisation officials on Wednesday denied that the body was "China-centric" and said that the acute phase of a pandemic was not the time to cut funding, after US President Donald Trump said he would put contributions on hold.



Dr Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the WHO director-general, defended the UN agency's relationship with China, saying its work with Beijing authorities was important to understand the outbreak which began in Wuhan.



"It was absolutely critical in the early part of this outbreak to have full access to everything possible, to get on the ground and work with the Chinese to understand this," he told reporters.



"This is what we did with every other hard hit country like Spain and had nothing to do with China specifically."



He also defended WHO recommendations to keep borders open, saying that China had worked very hard to identify and detect early cases and their contacts and ensure they did not travel in order to contain the outbreak.



The United States is the top donor to the Geneva-based body which Trump said had issued bad advice during the new coronavirus outbreak.



US contributions to WHO last year exceeded US$400 million, almost double the second largest member state contribution. China, in contrast, contributed US$44 million.



"We are still in the acute phase of a pandemic so now is not the time to cut back on funding," Dr Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, told a virtual briefing in response to a question about Trump's remarks.



On Europe, Kluge described the outbreak of coronavirus there as "very concerning" and urged governments to give "very careful consideration" before relaxing measures to control its spread.



"A dramatic rise in cases across the Atlantic skews what remains a very concerning picture in Europe," he said. "We still have a long way to go in the marathon." (Reuters)