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US health official says coronavirus is becoming a pandemic
Coronavirus fears spread across globe

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What is a pandemic?
https://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/frequently_asked_questions/pandemic/en/
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By Helen Regan, Adam Renton, Meg Wagner, Mike Hayes and Veronica Rocha, CNN
Updated 3:35 p.m. ET, February 25, 2020

What we're covering here

The latest: The death toll from the coronavirus is now more than 2,700 worldwide, with the vast majority in mainland China. There has been more than 80,000 global cases.
https://www.cnn.com/specials/asia/coronavirus-outbreak-intl-hnk
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/25/asia/novel-coronavirus-covid-19-update-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/29/asia/coronavirus-cases-worldwide-intl-hnk/index.html

Outside of China: Europe's biggest outbreak is in Italy, where more than 280 have been infected. Iran has reported at least 95 cases and South Korea now has more than 970 cases.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/25/europe/italy-coronavirus-backfoot-intl/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/25/europe/italy-coronavirus-backfoot-intl/index.html

Preparing for a pandemic: World Health Organization officials say it's still too early to declare the novel coronavirus a pandemic — but now is the time to prepare.
Meanwhile in the US, President Trump has remained publicly optimistic about the virus, even as Democrats criticize his administration.
Uh-Oh but there's no valid link here.



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17 min ago
UK warns against "all but essential" travel to 11 Italian towns

The United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office advised against “all but essential travel” to 11 Italian towns undergoing isolation measures due to coronavirus.

The towns included in the advisory are:

Codogno, Castiglione d’Adda, Casalpusterlengo, Fombio, Maleo, Somaglia, Bertonico, Terranova dei Passerini, Castelgerundo, San Fiorano and Vo’ Euganeo


22 min ago
Public health labs ask to create their own tests for coronavirus

From CNN’s Nadia Kounang

With only 12 state and local health laboratories able to test for the novel coronavirus, public health labs are asking the US Food and Drug Administration for permission to create their own tests for the virus.

“We are now many weeks into the response with still no diagnostic or surveillance test available outside of CDC for the vast majority of our member laboratories,” the Association of Public Health Laboratories wrote in a letter to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Monday.

The association represents the 150 largest public health labs across the country and is asking the FDA for a special exemption to create its own diagnostics.

“We find ourselves in a situation that requires a quicker local response,” the association wrote.

While the CDC currently has no backlog or delay in testing, the lab association’s CEO, Scott Becker, told CNN that its concern is not about the current situation, but for when community spread of the virus increases.

“We want to encourage and ensure that we have the test closest to the population,” Becker said.

The CDC announced on Feb. 6 that 200 test kits would be distributed to labs across the United States. The kits needed to be verified by the local health laboratories to ensure they were working. Less than a week later, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said some labs that had received the tests were getting inconclusive results, and components of the tests would need to be remade.

The CDC has been working to resolve the testing kit issue but has yet to provide a timeline about when labs will receive new tests.

[...]

https://www.cnn.com/asia/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-02-25-20-hnk-intl/index.html