WHO

The Chinese foreign ministry said it took this step "to uphold the concept of a shared community of health for all and to honor its commitment to turn COVID-19 vaccines into a global public good."

Despite the high numbers of cases, most of the world's population is still vulnerable to getting infected and this pandemic is far from over, the WHO's head of emergencies Dr. Michael Ryan says.

The study compared drinking habits of adults age 30-80 with their habits a year earlier. The study found the increase is most pronounced among women, for whom days with heavy drinking spiked by 41%.

It warned of the first drop in 28 years for vaccinations against diptheria, tetanus and pertussis — a marker for immunization coverage — based on preliminary data from the first four months of 2020.

The U.N. says it's too early to determine the full impact of coronavirus lockdowns and other measures. But it says the virus could cause between 83 million and 132 million people to go hungry.

Less than a month after President Trump vowed to stop U.S. funding, Germany promised to give more than half a billion dollars and France pledged $100 million to a WHO research center in Lyon.

So far, there is no seasonal pattern to coronavirus outbreaks, the WHO's Dr. Margaret Harris says. Lockdowns may not be necessary, she says, but infections rise when restrictions are relaxed rapidly.

By not inviting Taiwan to its health assembly, the World Health Organization kept out "scientific expertise on pandemic disease" and "damaged the WHO's credibility," the secretary of state said.

"There was a failure by this organization to obtain the information that the world needed, and that failure cost many lives," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says.

President Xi Jinping did not specifically refer to any of President Trump's criticisms. But he said the pandemic has exposed "weaknesses and deficiencies" in the global health system.

President Trump put a hold on funds to the World Health Organization, but the U.S. is already behind in its dues to the organization by more than a year.

The pandemic provides an opportunity for Taiwan to raise its international profile. But that is unlikely to go over well in Beijing, which is facing pressures for its own handling of the virus.