GENEVA, April 20. /TASS/. The World Health Organization is not concealing anything from the United States or other nations, the international organization’s Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.
Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva, the WHO chief said the organization had a longstanding relationship with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which means that the United States receives all the information.
"There is no secret in the WHO, because keeping things confidential or secret is dangerous," he said. "There is no secret in the WHO, because it’s about lives."
Ghebreyesus spoke highly of cooperation with CDC specialists, adding that "having CDC staff means there is nothing hidden from the US, from day one."
"Americans are working with us and it just comes naturally, they just tell what they are doing," the official continued, adding that "the WHO is open, we don’t hide anything."
"We want all countries to get the same message immediately, because that helps countries to prepare well and to prepare quickly," he said. "We are open and we give information to everybody."
On April 14, Trump announced that Washington had suspended funding of the World Health Organization. He declared that the United States was suspending its WHO membership dues and accused the organization of wrong judgements and recommendations.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 2,414,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 165,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 629,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.