US withdrawal from WHO to take effect July 2021

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres (pic) has said that the WHO is "absolutely critical to the world's efforts to win the war against COVID-19." "The Secretary-General... is in the process of verifying with the World Health Organization whether all the conditions for such withdrawal are met," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Tuesday.

NEW YORK: The United States will leave the World Health Organization (WHO) on July 6,2021, the United Nations said on Tuesday, after receiving notification of the decision by President Donald Trump, who has accused the agency of becoming a puppet for China during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump, who announced the decision over a month ago, has to give one-year notice of the U.S. withdrawal from the Geneva-based body and pay all Washington's dues under a 1948 joint resolution of the U.S. Congress. The United States currently owes the WHO more than $200 million in assessed contributions, according to the WHO website.