February 26 coronavirus news

There are now 15 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus related to travel or close contact to travelers in the United States, according to US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

Azar said there are also three cases among Americans repatriated from Wuhan and 42 cases are evacuees from the Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 60 U.S. cases.  

Household disinfectants are thought to be effective against the novel coronavirus. Cleaning products like Lysol and Clorox list the human coronavirus as one of the 99.9% of bacteria it can kill.

However, it's important to note that human coronaviruses are different than the novel coronavirus we are seeing now. This is a new virus and there are no vaccines or antiviral treatments that specifically target it.

Lysol's products have been proven effective in protecting against the other human coronaviruses, so they're thought to be effective against the novel coronavirus, too, said Saskia Popescu, a senior infection prevention epidemiologist in Phoenix, Arizona.

France is now reporting its 18th case of coronavirus, the country's Health Minister said in a news conference in Paris.

The latest case is the wife of someone already diagnosed and in a hospital in the town of Annecy. “Her state of health is not worrying”, Veran said.

“There is no epidemic in France," he added.

The Pentagon is prohibiting non-essential Department of Defense travel to the Republic of Korea because of the coronavirus outbreak.

US Indo-Pacific Command spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman released this statement:

A Walt Disney spokesperson says they are monitoring several employees at the Florida theme park who recently traveled to Italy during the coronavirus outbreak. 

The spokesperson tells CNN that there are no suspected cases of the coronavirus at Walt Disney World and are working alongside health department officials to take proactive measures. 

It is unclear how many Disney employees traveled to Italy. 

The last day of a carnival in the southern French city of Nice has been canceled as a precaution against coronavirus, according to a tweet from Nice Mayor, Christian Estrosi.

There are no cases of coronavirus in Nice, Estrosi said, but he had decided to cancel the last day of the carnival “preventatively and as a precaution”.

The final events of the carnival were due to take place on Saturday.

Italy now has 400 cases of coronavirus, according to Angelo Borrelli, head of Italy’s Civil Protection agency.

The three coronavirus cases reported in Rome have now recovered, Borrelli said.

He also gave further details about the statistics so far: half of the positive cases do not need hospitalization; and 4 out of 5 only have mild symptoms. 

The regional breakdown is: 

US officials briefed senators yesterday on coronavirus and said a vaccine was at least 12 to 18 months away, according to three senators present.

After the meeting, when reporters asked if we are close to a vaccine, Sen. Roy Blunt said: “We will not have a vaccine in the next 12 or 18 months.” 

Meanwhile, US biotech firm Moderna has shipped an experimental coronavirus vaccine to US government researchers just six weeks after it started working on the immunization.

Initial trials of the potential vaccine could begin in April — but the process of testing and approvals would last at least a year.

As a "precautionary measure" 35 European Parliament interns have had their upcoming internship postponed to later in the year. Their 5 month internship was due to run from the beginning of March to July.   

 A European Parliament Spokesperson says:

More context: The European Parliament runs two 5-month internship windows per year, from March through July and October through February. It is open to any EU citizen aged over 18 with University level degree or diploma. A limited number of Non-EU citizens are able to apply as well.