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CDC warns spread of novel coronavirus in US appears 'inevitable,' risk currently 'low'

The CDC said there is a lot it doesn’t know about how the COVID-19 virus might affect the country, but it wants the public to be prepared.

HOUSTON —

Officials at the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention say spread of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. is not a question of "if," but "when."

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the CDC's director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases conducted a media call with journalists Tuesday.

“Our containment strategy has been largely successful,” Dr. Messonnier said. “We have very few cases in the United States and no spread in the community.”

She added that as more countries experience the spread of the novel coronavirus, recently renamed COVID-19, “successful containment at our borders becomes harder and harder.”

Ultimately the CDC expects the virus to spread in the U.S.

Dr. David Persse with the Houston Health Authority said that concern comes from the likely chance someone infected with coronavirus will come to the U.S. and start spreading the virus before they can be identified and isolated.

He stressed there is no need for people in the U.S. to panic.

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“We are anticipating that that it is likely to occur at some point. Hopefully it won’t, but we need to anticipate and behave as if it will at some point so we can take advantage of the time we have now and change our behaviors and protect ourselves should it occur that it spreads in the United States,” Dr. Persse said.

Dr. Persse said people must be vigilant about hygiene: washing hands, covering coughs, disinfecting surfaces and staying home when sick.

“Those are the sorts of things that stop the progression of a virus throughout a community,” Dr. Persse said.

Health officials believe the virus is spread by “droplets," such as a cough or sneeze.

“If you cough or sneeze on your hand, and then grab a doorknob, the virus will live on inanimate objects -- we’re not sure how long, minutes, maybe an hour or so -- that’s why you need to clean those commonly touched objects," he said.

Dr. Peter Hotez, the Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said there is no need for people to change their daily activities yet, and there is still time to see if the virus starts spreading in the U.S.

He believes people should not be overly concerned until there is a major spread in the U.S.

“If the number of cases starts to go up, we’ll have time to rethink this, time to change travel plans, time to avoid thinking about being in public areas. I don’t think we’re there quite yet,” Dr. Hotez said.

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Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital and UTMB Galveston have been developing a vaccine, but it is still in the early stages and needs to be safety tested, Dr. Hotez said.

According to Dr. Messonier, COVID-19 originated in China and has been reported in Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

There is currently no vaccine to prevent the virus, there are no medications approved to treat it, but Messonnier said individuals and local communities should prepare for the possibility of an outbreak by implementing methods of "non-pharmaceutical intervention," or NPIs. She warned U.S citizens and local communities to prepare for "disruption to everyday life" in the case of a pandemic.

“I understand this whole situation may seem overwhelming and that disruption to everyday life may be severe, but these are things that people need to start thinking about now,” Dr. Messonier said.

“We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare and the expectation that this could be bad,” she added. “I continue to hope that in the end, we'll look back and feel like we are overprepared, but that is a better place to be and than being underprepared.”  

Dr. Messonnier said she had a breakfast time conversation with her children Tuesday, telling them she didn’t think they were at risk, but said her family needed to prepare for “a significant disruption to our lives.” She said she called her local school superintendent with questions about schools' plans for dismissals, closures and teleschool.

Messonnier encouraged parents to do the same and prepare for how to handle childcare services if schools begin to close. In case of a severe pandemic, Dr. Messonier recommended dividing students into smaller groups, closing schools and using internet-based education. 

Additionally, in a case of severe pandemic, “businesses can replace in-person meetings with video or telephone conferences and increase teleworking options on a larger scale. Communities and cities may need to modify, postpone or cancel mass gatherings for health care settings,” Dr. Messonnier said.

KHOU 11 reached out to the Texas Department of State Health Services to find out if there had been any recent change in course in the agency’s approach to COVID-19 and if they had any new advice for Texans.

Chris Van Deusen, director of DSHS Media Relations said there hadn’t been a change on the ground in Texas or the US.

“Right now, the risk here is still low,” Van Deusen wrote in an email. “We haven’t had any confirmed cases outside of those in federal quarantine in San Antonio. Of course, we’re watching what’s happening around the world and that will have an effect on Texas, and we’re continuing to plan. For the public, we need people to keep doing what they’ve been doing to prevent the spread of any respiratory disease – those things I think we’ve talked about before: wash hands, cover coughs, stay home if sick, etc.”

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