In his regular press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday evening, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed displeasure with the World Health Organization (WHO), saying it was too "China-centric."

Trump then threatened to withhold U.S. funding because the WHO disagreed with him on his coronavirus travel ban. When pressed by reporters, Trump said, "I'm looking at it."

The president also said the United States might be getting to the top of the "curve" of the coronavirus outbreak and denied seeing an early written warning about the pandemic from a top White House aide. 

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Trump went on to claim that evidence shows African Americans are having higher rates of COVID-19 infection in the United States, and said his administration is actively engaging on the problem.

The federal government had 8,675 ventilators in a national stockpile available to states who need them, while another 110,000 are to be delivered in the coming weeks. "I don't think we'll need them," the president said. "But we'll have them for the future and we'll also be able to help other countries who are desperate for ventilators." 

The president also reiterated that he wanted to reopen the U.S. economy as soon as possible. "We want to get it open soon, that's why I think maybe we're getting to the very top of the curve," Trump said. 

He then argued that the Wisconsin Supreme Court made the right decision to allow the state's primary election to go forward on Tuesday despite health and safety concerns related to the virus, reaffirming his opposition to mail-in voting, which he said leads to fraudulent votes being counted. 

However, most Americans, including a majority of Republicans, want the government to require mail-in ballots for the November 3 presidential election if the coronavirus outbreak still threatens the public this autumn, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. 

Meanwhile, New York City's coronavirus death toll surpassed the number of people killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11.

On that date in 2001, 2,977 people were killed when terrorists attacked the city.

According to counts released by the city, 3,202 people had died of COVID-19 as of Tuesday afternoon.

Johns Hopkins University, which has been tracking cases from multiple sources, later reported 4,009 deaths in New York City as of Tuesday evening – 30 percent of all U.S. coronavirus deaths.

The total number of confirmed cases in the U.S. reached 386,817, with 12,285 deaths, while a total of 20,191 people have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins.

Trump's coronavirus task force previously projected, based on models, that as many as 240,000 people in the United States could die in the pandemic. 

In other U.S. news, Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned hours after he had publicly apologized for a profanity-laced upbraiding of the officer he removed as captain of the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt.

Glenn Fine, acting inspector general for the Department of Defense, who was to oversee the government's 2.3-trillion-U.S.-dollar coronavirus response, was removed.

He was named last week to chair a committee acting as a watchdog over the response, including health policy and the massive economic relief package, the largest in U.S. history. 

COVID-19 around the world

The halting of global economies due to the coronavirus is having a huge impact on people in many developing countries that rely on remittances from relatives in the United States and elsewhere. 

These monthly payments of 50, 100, or 200 U.S. dollars are vital financial lifelines for people across Latin America, Africa and Asia.

The World Bank estimates a record 529 billion U.S. dollars was transferred by people to developing countries through official channels in 2018, the latest year for which figures are available.

Most of the money was sent home by people who work in service jobs or occupations, like day labor, that have no monthly paycheck and are worst affected by the global downtown.

Some also comes from illegal immigrants ineligible for part of the massive aid packages uncorked by advanced economies.

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in intensive care.

Japanese President Shinzo Abe declared a month-long state of emergency for Tokyo and six other regions to keep the virus from ravaging the world's oldest population.

In encouraging news, Italian authorities on Tuesday said the number of new cases in Italy during a 24-hour period was 3,039, the lowest daily total since the country was first hit by the virus.