WHO insists US experts kept in loop

The World Health Organization has confirmed that it has been working closely with US experts since the beginning of the novel coronavirus outbreak, a rebuke to US President Donald Trump's claim that the WHO did not inform the country of the threat.

WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the comment on Monday when asked about a news report that US citizens working at the WHO transmitted real-time information about COVID-19 to the Trump administration.

More than a dozen US researchers, physicians, and public health experts, many of them from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, were working full-time at the Geneva headquarters of the WHO as the virus emerged late last year and transmitted information about its discovery and spread in China to the Trump administration, The Washington Post reported, quoting US and international officials.

Tedros described the WHO's relationship with the CDC as "long standing" and praised the US institution as a model for the world and for helping the WHO.

"But, at the same time, having CDC staff means that there was nothing hidden from the US from day one," he said during a virtual news conference from Geneva.

He said the WHO was open, not just to the US CDC but all countries and that it wanted them to get information in a timely manner.

"There is no secret in the WHO because keeping things confidential or secret is dangerous," Tedros said. "It's about lives."

Trump has repeatedly accused the WHO of failing to communicate the extent of the threat posed by COVID-19, and announced last week that he was halting US funding to the global health body.

On Monday, Trump said on Twitter that he would suspend all immigration into the US, temporarily through an executive order in response to the outbreak and to protect US jobs.

It drew condemnation from some Democrats, who accused the president of creating a distraction from what they view as a slow and faulty response to the virus.

Trump said he was taking the action to protect the US workforce. Millions of US citizens are suffering unemployment after companies shed employees amid nationwide lockdowns.

"In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States," he said.

The White House declined to offer further details about the reasoning behind the decision, its timing, or its legal basis.

The US had reported 787,960 cases by Tuesday morning, with at least 42,364 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.

Inadequate testing

South Carolina on Monday allowed some businesses to reopen and two other southern states planned the same while some governors warned that testing for the virus remained inadequate.

US Vice-President Mike Pence attempted to reassure governors on Monday in a call that the federal government was working as quickly as possible to get states coronavirus-testing supplies.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said on Monday that his state acquired 5,000 test kits over the weekend from South Korean company LabGenomics for about $9 million.

But Hogan, a Republican and president of the National Governors Association, and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said they did not have the testing capability to open their economies.

Pan Mengqi in Beijing and agencies contributed to this story.