WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States recorded 960 coronavirus deaths on Saturday (May 30), bringing its total to 103,758 since the global pandemic began, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The country has officially logged 1,769,776 cases of the virus, far more than any other nation, the tracker by the Baltimore-based university showed at 8.30pm (0030 GMT Sunday).

The new numbers came as US President Donald Trump faced a broad backlash over severing ties with the World Health Organisation during the pandemic.

Mr Trump initially suspended funding to the WHO last month, accusing it of not doing enough to curb the early spread of the virus and being too lenient with China, where Covid-19 emerged late last year.

On Friday, he moved to make that decision permanent in a major blow to the agency. The US is the WHO’s biggest contributor, supplying US$400 million (S$566 million) last year.

The European Union urged Washington to reconsider its decision to cut funding in the middle of a pandemic that has killed more than 366,000 people and devastated the global economy.

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