As of Monday morning, the Chinese National Health Commission announced a total of 40,171 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus with 908 related deaths, surpassing the totals of the SARS epidemic of 2002.  There have now been more than 300 cases confirmed outside of China, including 12 in the United States.  On Saturday, it was announced that the first American had died from the virus.  Seventy individuals, including fourteen Americans onboard a cruise ship have tested positive for coronavirus, and the ship has been quarantined in Japan since last week.

China announced the government would spend $10 billion to combat the coronavirus.  President Trump has praised Chinese President Xi Jingping’s efforts to combat the spread of the virus.  The U.S. State Department announced that the U.S. Government is prepared to spend up to $100 million to assist China and other impacted countries to contain the coronavirus.  The State Department also announced that it has evacuated over 800 people from Wuhan.

On Sunday afternoon, in addition to announcing that a team of WHO personnel was heading to China, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said via twitter that the spread of coronavirus outside of China:

[A]ppears to be slow now, but could accelerate.  Containment remains our objective but all countries must use the window of opportunity created by the containment strategy to prepare for the virus’s possible arrival.

The CDC has produced a fact sheet entitled What you need to know about the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).  It is available here.   Interim clinical guidance is available here.   The CDC also updated the Situation Summary on February 7, 2020.  The CDC states that while person-to-person spread of the disease “has been seen among close contacts of returned travelers from Wuhan, but at this time, the virus is NOT currently spreading in the community in the United States.”

At the end of last week, the CDC began to share coronavirus tests that can determine the presence of the virus within four hours.   In response to the worldwide shortage of surgical masks, Foxxconn, the company that manufacturers iPhones in China, switched part of its production to making surgical masks.

The Health Law Pulse will continue to provide updates as more is known about this public health crisis.