What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

As the global pandemic infects over 1.4 million people and killing 82,000

Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

WHO China-centric, organisation “blew it”, Trump says

“The WHO really blew it,” Trump said in a Twitter post on Tuesday, calling the agency “China centric”. He later repeated the comment at a White House news briefing, saying he would put a hold on US funding for the agency.

The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2020

US conservatives have increasingly criticised the WHO during the pandemic, saying it relied on faulty data from China about the outbreak of the virus.

The WHO did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Impossible dilemma

When to emerge from a lockdown safely for the population and before your economy faces catastrophe? That is the dilemma facing several countries, and in particular Italy, which has the world’s highest death toll and where the lockdown has been in place longer compared with most nations.

Its northern industrial heartlands that generate a third of its economic output have also been where the coronavirus has hit hardest.

“One of the most important parts is not to let go of the measures too early in order not to have a fall back again,” said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier on Tuesday.

A painful lesson with blood and tears

The Chinese city where the coronavirus first emerged reopened on Wednesday, allowing its 11 million residents to leave for the first time in two months.

The virus has become a global pandemic infecting over 1.4 million people and killing 82,000, wreaking havoc on the global economy as governments impose sweeping lockdowns to rein in its spread.

While China’s operation to contain the outbreak in Wuhan has been hailed as a success, it took the best part of a month for the military-style quarantine to be put in place.

China won’t borrow from Fed’s playbook

Debt worries and property risks prevent China’s central bank from following in the footsteps of the US Federal Reserve with steep rate cuts or quantitative easing, policy sources said.

Instead the People’s Bank of China will largely rely on policy tools such as bank reserves, various lending facilities, and tools including market interest rates to support the economy, the sources said.