Over its handling of the pandemic. Sweden staff told jumps again with 170 people dying in 24 hours suggesting its relaxed approach may not be working. And the big win for ruling party in south koreas election which saw high turnout despite the coronavirus. Less than 24 hours after u. S. President donald trump announced that he was Holding Funding to the World Health Organization the number of coronavirus deaths across the United States has passed 30000 thats according to a tally by the voters News Agency New York and new jersey alone account for more than half of those deaths residents there have been told to prepare for a new normal when their economies are eventually reopened new york state Governor Andrew Cuomo says people will be ordered to wear masks when a safe distance cannot be maintained. Well the head of the w. H. O. Says he regrets Donald Trumps decision to suspend its funding over the w. H. O. His handling of the corona virus pandemic heteros then yesus says the w. H. O. Is reviewing the impact of the funding withdrawal and will work to fill any financial that the u. S. Is the agencys largest though and are providing it with around 400000000 dollars last year trump has accused the Un Health Body of severely mismanaging the pandemic when we divided the virus exploits the cracks between us we are committed to serving the world as people and to accountability for the resources with which were interested in due course w. Chose performance in tackling this pundit mic will be reviewed by w. Just Member States and the independent bodies that are employees to ensure transparency and accountability but for now our focus my focus is on stopping this virus and saving lives. Well trumps decision sparked widespread alarm and condemnation house of representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it senseless and dangerous and said it would be challenged billionaire select philanthropist and microsoft cofounder bill gates whose foundation is actually the agencys 2nd biggest donor face on twitter halting funding for the World Health Organization during a World Health Crisis is as dangerous as it sounds their work is slowing the spread of covert 19 and if that work is stopped a no other organization can replace them the world needs the u. H o now more than ever well lets cross to mike hanna now who is in washington d. C. For a set mike 1st of all clarify one thing for us i mean the president is saying he wants to stop the funding to the w. H. O. Can he and even if he needs to get approval from congress do you think hes likely to get that. Well thats a difficult question to answer basically congress and particularly democrats in congress arguing very strongly that no the president has executive does not have the right to suspend funding that has already been approved by congress this in terms of the principle of the separation of powers but the president denies that the president s advisers argue that he does have every right to do what he wants with regard to funding that has been passed through congress now the democrats are arguing this is exceedingly similar to President Trump deciding to hold up funding to the ukraine something that he was in fact impeached for by the house by the congress so they see this as very similar that the president does not have the constitutional right to hold up funding that has already been passed by congress but there is ongoing discussion within the administration it is insistent that it has the right to do so that the executive has the right to do so with regards to his relationship with china and with the World Health Organization his administration contending that yes he can decide what he wants to do in terms of relations with International Bodies such as the w. H. O. Congress has been highly critical of President Trump for cutting off this particular funding this is what a spokesman for the center for Disease Control has to say. If you see and heard a long history of working together in multiple operate throughout the world as we continue to do in this one and so weve had a very productive Public Health relationship we continue to have. And of course my kid this happening on the same or not the same day but weve just heard now that the number of deaths across the United States were getting this from the horses news agency the total tally has passed 30000 tell us more about the situation in the u. S. And i guess you know if this is that of a for across the u. S. But obviously there are hot spots. Yes indeed new york city remains the epicenter of the pandemic within the United States and new york state as a whole accounting for nearly half of the total of more than 30000. 00 this is continue to be the situation new york city having more deaths per capita than any other area in the world at this particular point in time now its has been insisting that it needs more federal systems and terms of one particular issue that is Testing Health experts agree with the governor of new york state and other governments throughout the country that it is impossible to completely end this pandemic or come to it without widespread testing certainly any talk about a timeline towards lifting the restrictions is meaningless unless you have the clear data that is obtained from widespread testing and is not only testing for positive or negative with a virus its also the diagnostic testing after the people who have recovered from it because these are the ways in which hotspots can be isolated in which future highs are hotspots can be targeted and certainly this would be an absolute key in terms of 1st of all country in the ongoing spread of the pandemic and secondly beginning to think about some kind of timeline to ease the mitigation measures that are in place across all 50 States Mike Hanna with the latest on that from washington d. C. Mike for the moment thank you. Well dr amish alger is a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins center for Health Security and he joins us now via skype from baltimore sir thank you so much for joining us here on aljazeera now assuming that donald trump does come through on his threat his promise to take away the funding from the w. H. O. Were talking about 400000000 dollars last year it is the largest single donor to the organization how do you think the loss of that money could impact the work that w. H. O. Is doing now and crucially in the coming months when the corona virus will keep on spreading beyond your appending u. S. Hopefully the w. H. O. Is currently funded for their operations that are ongoing right now and that this threat from the president will not stifle their ability to respond because we definitely need them to be doing the work that theyre doing they are the premier world world health Public Health agency and we need them to be in those countries helping advising them trying to understand what what what resources need to be brought to bear in controlling these but these the outbreak in all of these Different Countries and its something thats very crucial that we dont want to see hampered. How do you think this affects the hill reputation really because of course there have been some criticisms leveled at the organization specially the way it had been most governments have had some kind of accusation laid at their door the way for the way theyve handled this corona Virus Outbreak but what do you think it will do to the w h os reputation or are you confident that actually most countries have kind of said what donald trump is trying to do it definitely undercuts the w h os authority during a pandemic when we need them however there are there is criticism there are legitimate criticisms about the w. H. O. On how they may have handled this pandemic in the early stages with specifically which china and chinas transparency chinas draconian methods including the suppression of free speech and the expulsion of western journalists that occurred and i think that those are important things need to be addressed the w. H. S. Susceptibility to political pressure but thats something to do after that. And. After the ebola outbreaks in 2013 to 2014 i dont think the doing this in the middle of a pandemic is productive and it could actually be harmful. You mentioned middle of a pandemic i guess we dont really know how long that this pandemic could go on for as ive said it does look like some European Countries may have reached its peak some places in asia but it does keep on spreading worldwide what impact could it have as perhaps the show will shift its focus from European Countries and the west to other developed countries as it started to do already who may well need even more health because theyre less wealthy less developed than the countries that have been hit so far this to me is the crucial rolled along the way joe please because this is a Global Pandemic and no country is going to be safe from this virus until its control in all countries and there are developing nations that are going to rely heavily on w. H. O. Expertise w. H. O. Person now w. H. O. Guidance and we want to make sure that individuals have the confidence of the w. H. O. When theyre helping these countries get through their pandemic in thats the important part this is what why this is a dangerous move even for the United States because we will not be safe from this virus until its controlled and other nations and those other nations are going to rely on the w. H. O. Heavily that are amish just senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins center for Health Security service thank you so much for having shared your views with us thank you. Now in other developments 20 of the Worlds Largest economies have agreed to put the debts of the poorest countries on hold the g. 20 nations agreed to freeze that payments for a year and urged private lenders to do the same in all top e. U. Leaders are urging Member States to Work Together on gradually easing lockdown measures the European Commission has warned that moving too quickly could have devastating effects sweden appears to be paying the price for its softer approach to the virus its death toll has jumped sharply in the past few days now the total is 1203170 deaths were reported on wednesday and thats up from 114 the previous day and this cases rise in russia to the launch of digital travel permits to help police lock down have calls that long queues and crowds at moscow metro stations for britain has more now on the situation across europe. With 19 europe its member countries divided along national creating a patchwork response strict lockdowns in some more relaxed and open in others the disunity prompted many to question the very relevance and future of the European Union project so the question of when and how to consider lifting those restrictions is problematic italys spain austria finland and denmark have this week begun the tentative path to normality but key you headquarters in Brussels Commission president wants the European Union to set the pace and she warned that in the unions borderless member area that piecemeal strategy will undermine even monday in tasks we will not want to have people moving from one member state to the next member state to use the shopping opportunity and therefore it is very important that the coordination between neighboring Member States is an excellent one Good Neighbors speak with each other in spain the number of new deaths fell slightly again on weapons day and some sectors are reopening but the country still has one of the toughest lockdowns in the view and in the 1st parliamentary session since controls were 1st imposed there was a heated debate about exit strategy they said to me you know this by 37000000 spaniards have been confined for a month without any hope other than 2 more weeks of lockdown because you are incapable of carrying out a plan for must testing to normalize the situation of it. I mean theres a lot of my stance and the confinement no to working because we began with the daily infection rate of 35 percent some today we are at 3 percent a little and thats also a consequence of increasing the number of tests so were taking tough measures that are effective because theyre protecting and saving lives and theyre benefiting spaniards regardless of where they live on. Russias Virus Outbreak is still very much on an upward trajectory and restrictions got even tighter on wednesday creating 2. Traffic gridlock around the capital moscow with very few exceptions anyone outdoors now needs a permit in the form of a machine readable q. R. Code but with Security Officers having to check each one manually big crowds built up at the entrances to Moscows Metro stations making a nonsense of the intended strategy of social distancing and limiting movement on social media the citys mayor said he had intervened to prevent such scenes being repeated all of which risks losing sight of the ongoing struggle of medical staff and their stricken patients with more than 85000 deaths and rising europe remains the worlds worst hit region in terms of coronavirus fatalities. Aljazeera. Of course when it comes to deaths per 1000000 people spain has been the hardest hit country and earlier are just there as mohammed june spoke to spains foreign minister. She echoed the call for consensus among its nations in managing the Economic Impact of the pandemic 1st as why we are a European Union this is where we think with our we are in the north or in the south in the store in the west of europe its europe that needs to exit the crisis its europe that needs to strengthen its internal market and its ability to be a Global Player and for that its europe that needs to invest in a neutralized. And you can watch that interview in full on talk origins there which for us there is 1630 g. M. T. On thursday april 16th. Now one european country which has taken a much softer approach to tackling the virus is sweden where the best toll has risen again sharply a further 170 deaths were confirmed on wednesday out from 114 the previous day and much lower figures at the weekend more than 1200 people have now died from the virus in the country and nearly 12000 have tested positive sweetness come under increasing criticism for resisting the lockdown measures of the opted by other European Countries well for more on this lets speak to analisa villar smith whos a professor of emerging Infectious Diseases at the London School of hygiene and tropical medicine she joins us live via skype from going the volga in switzerland madame thank you so much for joining us here on aljazeera so we have seen an increase in sweden its not i guess the kind of exponential increase that weve seen in other countries when they started approaching their peak how worried do you think the swedish government should be when looking at these figures. This is government needs to be worried. The most important indicator that the situation may be worsening is the exponential growth from day to day so i suspect that that sweden will have a slower curve than the other countries but it will still see a smaller tsunami. So i guess you know a lot of people would be looking to sweden saying well you know theyve had an increase and thats so obviously of all the other countries that implemented much much stricter lockdowns so is it something about the timing of the sweden when they started putting in social distancing or is each country so different that ultimately its difficult to find a one size fits all sort of cure for this disease or attempt to keep the numbers down. Indeed i should warn against a direct head to head comparisons of countries every country is different different population densities different age stratification and sweden clearly is actually at an advantage its further away the population density is militancy low the received a fewer importations them than other countries and therefore it is later in the epidemic phase every country is the different stage and we should not compare countries directly with each other so what do you think of the factors then that should be looked at carefully when trying to assess whether it is worth implementing a very strict lock down which obviously has Enormous Economic effects which in turn can be devastating for a population. So indeed every government will its a very fine line between the Public Health needs and and and wearing against the economic damage as a sweden has taken its own decision and has opted for a softer approach as we said with less strict. Enforcement of social distancing relying on the on people taking responsibility themselves just as for example now yes one of these in contrast to paris where where theres very very strict lockdown. And sweden is later in the outbreak so it looked good initially but as you know with this virus you know it is a slow growth and then suddenly theres exponential growth and this is where sweden is not just at the beginning of and this reduced government its v