The White House is requesting $1.25 billion in emergency funding from Congress as part of a total commitment of $2.5 billion to fight the novel coronavirus.
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Coronavirus live updates: CDC warns Americans of 'significant disruption'
Top health officials are asking Americans to prepare for COVID-19.
By
Morgan Winsor
,
Erin Schumaker
and
Marc Nathanson
February 25, 2020, 11:37 AM
16 min read
Coronavirus could turn into global pandemic, officials say Cases in Italy have jumped to over 200 and the Trump administration asked Congress for $2.5 billion to help fight the outbreak as the CDC issued new travel warnings to avoid non-essential travel.Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images
U.S. health officials issued a strong warning about novel coronavirus on Tuesday -- that it's no longer a matter of if, but when it will spread in the U.S., and that Americans should prepare for a "significant disruption."
Until now, health officials said they'd hoped to prevent community spread in the U.S. But following community transmissions in Italy, Iran and South Korea, health officials believe the virus may not be able to be contained at the border.
This comes in contrast to statements from the Trump administration. Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said on Tuesday the threat to the U.S. from coronavirus "remains low," despite the White House seeking $1.25 billion in emergency funding to combat the virus.
"Ultimately, we expect we will see community spread in this country," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Tuesday at a news conference.
Messonnier added that Americans should channel their concern about the virus, officially called COVID-19, into preparing for its arrival.
A tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding the novel coronavirus outbreak is seen on a Chinese television station inside a restaurant in the Chinatown section of San Francisco, California, Feb. 24, 2020.Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Americans should continue to practice protective measures -- hand-washing, staying home from work when sick -- while local officials should make sure systems are in place -- teleschooling, working remotely -- should face-to-face interactions need to be reduced. Health care facilities should be prepared to increase telehealth systems and delay elective surgeries should the need arise.
Messonnier noted that every community's response will be different. What's appropriate for a community with local transmission may not be appropriate for a community in which no local transmissions has occurred.
So far there has been no community spread in the United States. Forty-three people repatriated on charter flights from Wuhan, China, or from the Diamond Princess cruise ship have tested positive for COVID-19, and 14 cases have been detected in the U.S. via the country's health system. Among those 57 cases, only two involved human transmission in the United States, and those transmissions were among members of the same household.
If the White House's request for funds is improved, the $1.25 billion will be earmarked for accelerated vaccine development, the procurement of equipment and supplies and to support preparedness and response activities, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the request "long overdue and completely inadequate to the scale of this emergency." She also accused President Donald Trump of leaving "critical positions in charge of managing pandemics at the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security vacant."
A tourist wears stickers on her back to identify herself as Taiwanese and not Chinese in Milan, as Italy deals with an outbreak of COVID-19, Feb. 25, 2020.Yara Nardi/Reuters
"The president's most recent budget called for slashing funding for the Centers for Disease Control, which is on the front lines of this emergency. And now, he is compounding our vulnerabilities by seeking to ransack funds still needed to keep Ebola in check," Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday morning. "Our state and local governments need serious funding to be ready to respond effectively to any outbreak in the U.S. The president should not be raiding money that Congress has appropriated for other life-or-death public health priorities."
She added that lawmakers in the House of Representatives "will swiftly advance a strong, strategic funding package that fully addresses the scale and seriousness of this public health crisis."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also called the Trump administration's request "too little too late."
"That President Trump is trying to steal funds dedicated to fight Ebola -- which is still considered an epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- is indicative of his towering incompetence and further proof that he and his administration aren't taking the coronavirus crisis as seriously as they need to be," Schumer said in a statement.
Mary Cahill, left, leaves a news conference where officials discussed the proposal for housing coronavirus patients at the Fairview Development Center in Costa Mesa, Calif on Feb. 22, 2020. A Federal judge extended a restraining order stopping the U.S. government from moving forward with the plan on Feb. 24.Mindy Schauer/AP
At the same time, Bruce Aylward, an epidemiologist who led a team of international experts in China, said that the epidemic is slowing in China.
In addition to a falling rate of new infections, hospital beds are opening up and there's no wait for tests at fever clinics, Aylward explained. It's impossible to know if this trend of decreasing cases will continue, but for now, Aylward thinks China's response to the outbreak, which included rapidly building hospitals and imposing strict lockdown measures in cities hardest hit by the virus, is working.
"The implications are that you can actually effect the course of this disease, but it takes a very aggressive and tough program," Aylward said at a WHO news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
An additional 121 confirmed infections have been reported in the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao as well as Taiwan, with two deaths in Hong Kong and one in Taiwan, according to China's National Health Commission.
WHO experts in China are currently reporting a 2% to 4% fatality rate in Wuhan and a 0.7% fatality rate outside the city. For mild cases of the disease, there's a roughly two-week recovery rate, and for more severe cases, the recovery rate is between three and six weeks.
COVID-19
causes symptoms similar to pneumonia, ranging from the mild, such as a slight cough, to the more severe, including fever and difficulty breathing, according to the CDC. There is no vaccine yet for the virus.
This photo taken on Feb. 24, 2020, shows medical staff treating patients infected by the novel coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province. The newly discovered virus has peaked in China but could still grow into a pandemic, the World Health Organization warned, as infections mushroom in other countries.Str/AFP via Getty Images
The outbreak of the new coronavirus has continued to spread overseas, with at least 2,069 confirmed cases in at least 33 other countries, resulting in at least 33 fatalities, according to the latest data from the WHO, which has declared the epidemic a global health emergency.
Although the virus "absolutely" has the potential to become a pandemic, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it's still too soon to classify it that way.
"For the moment, we are not witnessing the uncontained global spread of this virus and we are not witnessing large-scale severe disease or deaths," he told reporters at a press conference in Geneva on Monday. "Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely it has. Are we there yet from our assessment? Not yet."
South Korea reported
another surge in new infections overnight, making it the second-highest national total behind China. As of Tuesday, South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 977 confirmed cases and nine deaths.
The recent spike in cases prompted the CDC to issue a warning on Monday advising Americans to avoid traveling to South Korea. The federal agency
raised its travel warning to the highest level for those contemplating travel to the East Asian nation.
Railway workers wearing protective gear spray disinfectant, as part of preventive measures against the spread of the novel coronavirus, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, on February 25, 2020. The novel coronavirus outbreak in South Korea is "very grave", President Moon Jae-in said on Feb. 25 as he visited its epicenter and the country's total number of cases approached 1,000.-/YONHAP/AFP via Getty Images
The heightened warning came on the same day that officials said a relative of a U.S. service member in South Korea had been
diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. In a press release, U.S. Forces Korea announced that it had been informed by South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that a military dependent living in Daegu had tested positive for COVID-19.
It's the first time a U.S. Forces Korea-related individual has been infected with the virus, according to the press release.
South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said as of Monday there were 13 South Korean military personnel infected.
Partly as a result, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday that the United States and South Korea were considering scaling back an upcoming joint military command exercise.
American citizens arrive by bus from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship to Haneda airport on Feb. 17, 2020 in Tokyo to be repatriated to the U.S. The U.S. became the first country to repatriate citizens on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, while it remained quarantined in Yokohama Port, after at least 355 passengers and crew onboard tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images
Japan has the third-highest national total, when including the nearly 700 cases diagnosed aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
The cruise ship has been quarantined at Yokohama port since Feb. 5 and 695 people on board have tested positive for COVID-19. Three passengers have died, all of whom were Japanese nationals and in their 80s, according to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
All those who have been infected were brought ashore for treatment, while the rest were confined to their rooms until the quarantine period ends. Passengers who have tested negative for the virus have been disembarking the ship since last Wednesday.
A person wearing a face mask walks out of an entrance gate to the Codogno Civic Hospital, where the emergency room was closed as a precautionary measure, in Codogno, near Lodi, northern Italy on Feb. 21 2020. Officials reported 14 confirmed cases in the Lombardy region and two in the Veneto region.MAURIZIO MAULE/EPA-EFE/REX
Clusters of coronavirus cases in Italy and Iran have raised concerns of the global spread of the outbreak.
As of Tuesday, Italy's Ministry of Health had recorded 322 confirmed cases and 10 fatalities. The majority of those cases were in the northern Lombardy region, prompting some towns to suspend public gatherings, demonstrations and sporting events and
to close schools, businesses and restaurants.
The initial cases in Italy were linked to Chinese tourists, according to the health ministry.
Switzerland and Austria, which border northern Italy, reported their first COVID-19 cases Tuesday.
At least 95 cases have been confirmed
in Iran, along with 15 deaths, the country's
state-run news agency reported.
Schools were closed across the country on Tuesday for a second day, and health workers have begun a daily sanitizing of public buses and the Tehran metro.
Among those infected is Iran's deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, who is head of the national headquarters tasked with containing the coronavirus outbreak. He had strongly opposed suggestions to quarantine the hard-hit city of Qom.
Iranian workers disinfect the Shrine of Fatima Masumeh in Qom, Iran, on February 25, 2020, to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus which has reached the country.Mehdi Marizad/FARS NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images
Meanwhile, a tourist hotel on the island of Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands has been placed under quarantine after an Italian guest tested positive for COVID-19. The guest, a doctor from Italty's virus-hit Lombardy region, went to a local hospital on Monday and was placed in isolation along with his wife, who tested negative for the disease, public health officials for the Canary Islands told ABC News.
Around 1,000 guests staying at the Costa Adeje Palace hotel have been confined to their rooms while health workers test everyone for the virus on Tuesday. All samples will be sent to Madrid for testing, officials told ABC News.
So far, Spain has two confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, according to the WHO.
ABC News' Elizabeth McLaughlin, Aicha El-Hammar, Somayeh Malekian and Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
...my sister and brother in law visited from the cities. We had built a large pantry in the basement, and it was well filled with OUR efforts. My brother in law meandered to the basement and found our pantry, even though it had a closed door. He proceeded to come up stairs, tell my sister all about everything in the pantry, and told us they would be coming to our house if things got bad...they and kids and grandkids. I heard the same statement from him the other day over the phone...even though I have much less now then we did then. It frustrates me to think they are of that part of society that thinks what is mine is yours! Anyway, I know lots of society is like that, it just ticked me off to hear the same thing coming from him, after all the "education" and help I have imparted to them over the years. I totally understand your head banging. LOL.
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