World Health Organisation says it regrets US decision to withdraw

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it regrets that the US has officially withdrawn from the UN health agency, and it hopes Washington returns to active participation in the future.

The US left the organisation on January 22 after a year of warnings that doing so would hurt public health in the US and globally.

President Donald Trump's administration has criticised the way the WHO handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump has said the WHO had failed to act independently from the "inappropriate political influence of WHO member states" and that the agency required "unfairly onerous payments" from the US that were disproportionate to the sums provided by other, larger countries, such as China.

WHO said it stands by its response to the "unprecedented global health crisis" brought about by the pandemic, adding that "the systems we developed and managed before, during and after the emergency phase of the pandemic, and which run 24/7, have contributed to keeping all countries safe, including the US."