July 08, 2020: President Donald Trump on Tuesday formally started the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization, making good on threats to deprive the UN body of its top funding source over its response to the coronavirus. 

The country will leave the World Health Organization (WHO) on July 6, 2021, the United Nations said on Tuesday, after receiving notification of the decision by President Trump, who has accused the agency of becoming a puppet for China during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump, who announced the decision over a month ago, has to give one-year notice of the US withdrawal from the Geneva-based body and pay all Washington`s dues under a 1948 joint resolution of the US Congress. The United States currently owes the WHO more than $200 million in assessed contributions, according to the WHO website.

After more than 70 years of membership, the United States moved to quit the WHO amid escalating tensions with China over the coronavirus pandemic. The virus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. 

It may be added that Joe Biden, Trump's presumptive Democratic opponent in November elections, vowed he would immediately end the pullout if he won the White House.

"Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health. On my first day as President, I will rejoin the WHO and restore our leadership on the world stage," Biden wrote on Twitter.

“Congress received notification that POTUS officially withdrew the US from the @WHO in the midst of a pandemic,” Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, wrote on Twitter.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus responded to the news with a one-word tweet -- "Together!" -- as he linked to a discussion by US health experts on how leaving the global body could impede efforts to prevent future pandemics.