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The coronavirus is quickly becoming a global outbreak and presenting a potential threat to the United States. The latest coronavirus update has the death toll a more than 2,700 worldwide, and over 80,000 confirmed cases globally.
The deadly respiratory disease has now spread into Algeria, Austria, Croatia, Spain, and Switzerland. Italy has 322 COVID-19 infections and 11 deaths, all of which were either elderly or had pre-existing medical conditions.
More than 1,000 guests and workers at a hotel on the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands have been quarantined. The H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife was placed on lockdown after an Italian doctor and his wife tested positive for coronavirus. There are at least five cases in Spain.
📹 Agentes de la Policía Nacional custodian el hotel H10 Costa Adeje Palace, situado en el sur de la isla de Tenerife, donde ha dado positivo por coronavirus el médico italiano que se encontraba de vacaciones > https://t.co/NQ6pL8xjiS pic.twitter.com/ltUJHdV8fm
— Informativos Telecinco (@informativost5) February 25, 2020
Iran has reported at 15 deaths and least 95 cases, including the country’s deputy health minister. On Monday, Iraj Harirchi, Iran’s deputy health minister, was addressing the media on the current status of the COVID-19 outbreak. Video shows Harirchi not looking well and sweating profusely during the press conference.
Iran's health minister appeared at a press conference profusely sweating but insisting Iran had coronavirus under control.
Just a day later, he tested positive for coronavirus himself
Read more on our live blog here: https://t.co/cHkHV8IVF9 pic.twitter.com/EmBqP07RoF
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) February 25, 2020
South Korea now has 11 dead from the coronavirus as well as 977 cases, the largest outbreak outside of mainland China.
Japan is considering cancelling the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo if the coronavirus situation doesn’t improve.
Olympic official: Tokyo is "looking at a cancellation" if coronavirus not contained by late May https://t.co/He269eJ0gM
— Axios (@axios) February 25, 2020
The precaution in the United States has been elevated by health officials, despite there only being 57 confirmed cases. Emanuel notes that most cases in the US are due to travel, but he cautions against stigmatizing Chinese people. https://cnn.it/32ymoXi
San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency for the city on Tuesday.
“The global picture is changing rapidly, and we need to step-up preparedness,” Breed said in a statement. “We see the virus spreading in new parts of the world every day, and we are taking the necessary steps to protect San Franciscans from harm.”
The city of San Francisco will now have the authority and resources to “expedite emergency planning measures and boost the ability to deploy a rapid response to a potential coronavirus case.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that Americans should “prepare for the expectation that this might be bad.”
“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country any more but a question of when this will happen,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
“Ultimately we expect we will see community spread in this country,” Dr. Messonier told reporters during a conference call. “These are things that people need to start thinking about now. We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad.”
Now is the time for US businesses, hospitals, and communities to begin preparing for the possible spread of #COVID19. CDC continues to work with business, education & healthcare sectors, encouraging employers to be prepared. Learn more: https://t.co/OUYvMhdIaS.
— CDC (@CDCgov) February 25, 2020
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Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is more optimistic. On Tuesday, President Trump said that the United States was in “very good shape” as far as preparing for the coronavirus. At a news conference in India, President Trump said the COVID-19 is “very well under control in our country.”
“I think that whole situation will start working out. Lot of talent, a lot of brainpower is being put behind it,” President Trump said.
President Trump: "I think [Coronavirus] is a problem that's going to go away, but we lost almost a thousand points yesterday on the market and that's something you know — things like that happen where and you have it in your business all the time — had nothing to do with you." pic.twitter.com/tZVIsbz25K
— The Hill (@thehill) February 25, 2020
As of right now, there are only three states that can test for COVID-19, California, Nebraska and Illinois, according to the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL).
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it’s too early to call the COVID-19 an epidemic, but people should prepate like it is.
“There’s a lot of speculation about whether these increases mean that this epidemic has now become a pandemic,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said during a press conference on Monday. “Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely, it has. Are we there yet? From our assessment, not yet.”
Researchers from the School of Life Sciences at China’s Tianjin University have claimed that they developed an oral vaccine that uses baker’s yeast. The vaccine uses “food-grade saccharomyces cerevisiae, or baker’s yeast, as the carrier and aims at the Spike protein of the virus,” according to Professor Huang Jinhai.
A Massachusetts biotech firm believes that they have created a coronavirus vaccine. The Cambridge-based Moderna Inc. announced a COVID-19 vaccine named “mRNA-1273.” The vaccine will be tested on humans at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland.
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