The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has raised the threat level of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) to Level 3 with a recommendation that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to all of China.
The CDC says that: ”
- CDC is closely monitoring this situation and is working with WHO and state and local public health partners to respond to this emerging public health threat.
- The goal of the ongoing U.S. public health response is to contain this outbreak and prevent sustained spread of 2019-nCov in this country.
- CDC established a 2019-nCoV Incident Management Structure on January 7, 2020. On January 21, 2020, CDC activated its Emergency Response System to better provide ongoing support to the 2019-nCoV response.
- On January 27, 2020 CDC issued updated travel guidance for China, recommending that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to all of the country (Level 3 Travel Health Notice).
- CDC is monitoring for illness among travelers and providing educational materials for any travelers arriving in the United States from China at 20 U.S. airports with quarantine stations in the United States.
- CDC issued an updated interim Health Alert Notice (HAN) Advisory to inform state and local health departments and health care providers about this outbreak on January 17, 2020.
- CDC has deployed multidisciplinary teams to Washington, Illinois, California, and Arizona to assist health departments with clinical management, contact tracing, and communications.
- CDC has developed a real time Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (rRT-PCR) test that can diagnose 2019-nCoV in respiratory and serum samples from clinical specimens. On January 24, 2020, CDC publicly posted the assay protocol for this test. Currently, testing for this virus must take place at CDC, but in the coming days and weeks, CDC will share these tests with domestic and international partners through the agency’s International Reagent Resourceexternal icon.
- CDC uploaded the entire genome of the virus from the first and second reported cases in the United States to GenBank.
- CDC also is growing the virus in cell culture, which is necessary for further studies, including for additional genetic characterization. “
Read more about Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on the CDC Website
