By Staff, Agencies

As the United States is severing its ties with the World Health Organization [WHO], the administration of President Donald Trump will reroute the funds still owed for this year’s dues to other health-related causes also under United Nations auspices, the State Department announced this week.

In May, Trump formally withdrew the US from the global health agency, an organization he dismissed as a "puppet" of China, questioning its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The second tranche of national membership dues to the tune of $62 million, as well as $18 million owing from the previous year, “will be reprogrammed to the UN to pay other assessments,” Nerissa Cook, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, said on Wednesday. 

The details were yet to be worked out, the official added.

Additionally, Washington is withdrawing government employees who advise the agency.

The announcement came a day after Washington said the US would distribute its own vaccine against the COVID-19 virus, declining to participate in a WHO-run vaccine project.

The WHO declined to comment on the decision. 

After the US withdrawal, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency “regretted” Trump’s decision.