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Hong Kong’s Department of Health announced that it will prosecute two people suspected of violating compulsory quarantine requirements.
In a statement released on Monday, the Department of Health said that since the compulsory quarantine began on February 8, four Hong Kong residents under quarantine have attempted to leave Hong Kong in breach of the requirements.
The Department of Health added that following investigations, the department applied to serve summons to two of the people involved. The other two people are still under investigation.
According to quarantine regulation, all travelers who have been in mainland China within 14 days preceding their arrival in Hong Kong must be subject to a 14-day quarantine.
If convicted of violating the quarantine regulation, the two Hong Kong residents face a maximum fine of $3,220 and up to six months in prison.
Five additional deaths were reported in mainland China on Monday, increasing the death toll there to 98, according to China’s National Health Commission (NHC). Of the 98 deaths reported Monday, 93 were in Hubei Province.
The additional five deaths across all of mainland China brings the death toll to 1,868 in China. That brings the global death toll to 1,873. There have been five deaths reported outside of mainland China with one death in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and France.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the risk of coronavirus in the US is “really very minimal because there really are only 15 cases now, in addition to those who were shipped here.”
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday, he went on to say the cases “were identified, they were isolated and the contacts were traced.”
“Obviously, things could change. If this spreads more diffusely throughout the world, there’s the possibility we may actually have a global pandemic. So although I’m saying the risk right now is minimal in the United States and we should just go about our daily business, we need to keep an eye on it because it can change, and that’s the reason why we’re taking it very seriously,” Fauci said.
He said the soonest a vaccine for the novel coronavirus could make it through the development process and clinical trials is “at least a year to a year and a half.”
The Hubei health authority reported that 93 more people died of the coronavirus in Hubei province on Monday, raising the death toll in the epicenter since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak to 1,789.
This brings the total number of deaths in mainland China to at least 1,863. The global death toll is at least 1,868, with one death each in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and France.
Hubei authorities confirmed an additional 1,807 cases of the virus in Hubei on Monday, which brings the total number of cases in the epicenter of the outbreak to 59,989.
According to the health authority, 41,957 patients have been hospitalized in Hubei, including 1,853 who are in critical condition. The health authority said 7,862 patients have been discharged.
The global number of confirmed coronavirus cases now exceeds 73,243 with the vast majority of cases in mainland China.
China’s National Health Commission is expected to release numbers for all of China’s provinces later.
Concerns are mounting about how long the novel coronavirus may survive on surfaces — so much so that China’s central bank has taken measures to deep clean and destroy its cash, which changes hands multiple times a day, in an effort to contain the virus.
It is unknown exactly how long the novel coronavirus can linger on contaminated surfaces and objects with the potential of infecting people, but some researchers are finding clues by studying the elusive behaviors of other coronaviruses.
About the virus: Coronaviruses are a large group of viruses common among animals. In rare cases, they are what scientists call zoonotic, meaning they can be transmitted from animals to humans, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Officials do not know what animal may have caused the current outbreak of novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. But previously, studies have suggested that people were infected with the coronavirus MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, after coming in contact with camels, and scientists have suspected that civet cats were to blame for SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
These human coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, have been found to persist on inanimate surfaces — including metal, glass or plastic surfaces — for as long as nine days if that surface had not been disinfected, according to research published earlier this month in The Journal of Hospital Infection.
Cleaning with common household products can make a difference, according to the research, which also found that human coronaviruses “can be efficiently inactivated by surface disinfection procedures with 62-71% ethanol, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite” or bleach within one minute.
CNN’s Randi Kaye, who is filling in for Anderson Cooper today on “Full Circle,” talks to an American who stayed on the Diamond Princess cruise ship instead of taking a charter flight to the US.
Authorities later confirmed that 14 passengers who evacuated the ship and took charter flights to the US tested positive for coronavirus.
Now after the 14 coronavirus cases, Sacramento resident Matthew Smith said, “The decision not to be evacuated was the best decision ever.”
Refresh this page to watch Anderson Cooper Full Circle live at 5 p.m. ET in the video player above.
The Trump administration has prevented at least 140 travelers from entering the United States as it attempts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Fourteen foreign nationals were turned away at US airports and 126 people were refused entry at land ports from February 2 to 12, according to data provided to CNN by the Department of Homeland Security.
Airlines are responsible for removing passengers who are denied entry to the US out of the country. Additionally, 34 travelers were stopped at pre-clearance locations — airports where US officials conduct screening before passengers board US-bound flights.
More on this: On February 2, the US began implementing stringent travel restrictions that include temporarily denying entry to foreign nationals who visited China in the 14 days prior to their arrival in the US. US citizens returning from China are also subject to health screenings and potential quarantine. Those US citizens and others traveling to the US from China are being funneled through 11 airports where authorities can conduct additional screening and transfer people for quarantine if needed.
Last summer, as the Ebola virus threat was emerging from the Democratic Republic of Congo, DHS’ Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office implemented plans to provide enhanced airport screening at multiple airports throughout the United States. The department’s chief medical officer is housed within the CWMD office.
The department retrofitted its Ebola response plan to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, according to DHS.
Customs officers referred 43,263 air travelers for potential secondary screening since the efforts began on February 2. Of those referred at airports, 23,836 required secondary screening, according to the data.
Personnel has been added to deal with the virus as well. Around 95 CWMD contractors are employed per day across the 11 airports to conduct medical screenings. As of February 12, 19 DHS personnel were assigned to the US Department of Health and Human Services operations center.
There are also 150-200 Customs and Border Protection officers assisting with screening daily at the 11 airports.
Delta Air Lines said today it is “proactively reaching out” to its passengers who recently traveled on one of its flights between Honolulu and Nagoya, Japan, after it became aware that two passengers on that flight are being reportedly treated for the novel coronavirus.
Here’s the statement from Delta:
“We are communicating with the appropriate public health officials, including U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local Japanese authorities. The health and safety of our customers and crews is our top priority, and in cooperation with Japanese health officials, we are proactively reaching out to customers who were onboard that flight as well as taking the necessary steps to ensure the safety of our customers and crew.”
Dr. William Walters, the Executive and Managing Director of Operational Medicine at Bureau of Medical Services at State Department, said that 328 people were evacuated on the two chartered flights out of Japan.
The flight to California: The aircraft that went to Travis Air Force Base carried 177 people, he said on a briefing call today. Seven of those people “had isolated coronavirus positive,” and an additional three were isolated during the flight because of fever. These three people were not virus positive by test.
Six people were moved to Omaha to be treated at the University of Nebraska, Walters said, adding there were “three spouse pairs, which means four folks that were coronavirus positive but asymptomatic were taken to health care facilities in the vicinity of Travis Air Force Base.”
Dr. Robert Kadlec, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at United States Department of Health and Human Services, said this was prearranged with local health authorities.
The flight to Texas: There were 151 individuals on the flight to Lackland Air Force Base, Walters said, and seven were isolated with a positive lab test and no symptoms.
“Two additional personnel were placed in isolation during the flight for fever in accordance with the protocol we’ve discussed,” Walters said.
In total, 144 people stayed at Lackland and seven went on to Omaha, he told reporters.
This post has been updated with the total number of passengers on the two flights.
Fourteen people who were evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and flown back to the United States on charter flights tested positive for novel coronavirus, according to a joint statement from the US Departments of State and Health and Human Services.
The passengers are among the more than 300 people removed Sunday from the ship, which docked off the Japanese port city of Yokohama, and flown to military bases in the United States.
While the US is evacuating its citizens from the ship, other countries have not yet said if they will do the same.
There are 74 British nationals on board, but the UK government has not announced if they will do the same service for their citizens.
UNICEF says it urgently needs over $42 million to scale up its response to the coronavirus, with the executive director calling it a “race against time.”
“The immediate focus is to reduce human to human transmission but also to help children in areas where their access to essential services has been disrupted,” UNICEF’s Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement.
More context: UNICEF’s current response focuses on supporting China and the broader East Asia and Pacific region countries. UNICEF has flown in 13 tons of supplies to the countries, including protective suits, masks, goggles and gloves for use by health workers since January 29.
Three new cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in Hong Kong, bringing the city-wide total to 60 confirmed cases, including one death, the Hong Kong Health Ministry announced on Monday.
The new cases are:
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has listed 467 people under investigation for the novel coronavirus in 42 states, according to an update posted to the agency’s website Monday.
Of them…
Keep in mind: The latest count “does not include [people under investigation] in the US that were evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, including 14 presumptive-positive cases that are being retested,” the CDC says.
These numbers are cumulative since Jan. 21 and include people with travel history to China, as well as those who have been in close contact with confirmed cases or other people under investigation.
The 15 confirmed cases in the US include eight in California, one in Texas, one in Massachusetts, one in Washington state, one in Arizona, two in Illinois and one in Wisconsin. There are two instances of person-to-person transmission, one in Illinois and one in California. Two California cases and the Texas case are among evacuees from China.
This is an increase from Friday, when the CDC listed 443 people under investigation in 42 states, including 15 positive, 347 negative and 81 pending cases.
Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme, said the organization is still not classifying the coronavirus outbreak a “pandemic.”
“I think we need to be extremely cautious in using the term ‘pandemic.’ We had lots of controversies during the H1N1 situation, around when it was pandemic and when it wasn’t pandemic, and I think we need to be careful,” Ryan said.
Ryan continued:
“The real issue here is whether we’re seeing efficient community transmission outside of China. And at the present time, we’re not observing that. And as such, we’re not in a position to have that discussion. What we’re seeing is, again, as we’ve said previously, the majority of cases outside China have a direct link still back to China. And of that transmission that’s occurred in countries outside China, the majority of that transmission can be traced through existing transmission chains. So therefore I think we have to be very, very careful not to drive fear in the world right now, and be very cautious in using the words you have used. We’ve said that the risk is very high in China, it’s high regionally and it’s high around the world. That is not, ‘the risk is high of a pandemic.’ The risk is high that the disease may spread further, and I think at face value, that is true.”
Dr. Sylvie Briand, director of WHO’s Infectious Hazards Management Department, agreed, adding, “The difficulty with certain words is that their interpretation varies, and for [the] general public, very often ‘pandemic’ is really the worst-case scenario. And so I think we need, before qualifying the event as the worst-case scenario, we need a lot more evidence and a lot more data. And so that’s why I think we need to be cautious, because it can really create panic unnecessarily.”