President Donald Trump has threatened to cut US funding to the World Health Organization, accusing it of bias toward China, where the authorities lifted a two-and-a-half month travel ban on Wuhan, the city that spawned the global coronavirus pandemic.

In Washington, Trump told reporters that he was “going to put a very powerful hold” on funding to the WHO, the UN body whose biggest contributor is the US, accusing it of being “very biased towards China.”

As the United States suffered a record total of more than 1800 deaths in the past 24 hours, China reported no new deaths for the first time since the outbreak began in Wuhan in late December.

“They called it wrong,” he said of a WHO travel warning on China. “They could have called it months earlier.”

Trump gave no details about how much money would be withheld and minutes later he said he would only “look at ending funding.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson remained in stable condition in intensive care in a London hospital, meanwhile, after being admitted on Monday, 10 days after being diagnosed with the virus.