CDC: Coronavirus Health Risk to General American Public is Currently Low

Officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told reporters on Monday the immediate coronavirus health risk to the general American public is low. This is due, in part, to the low number of confirmed domestic cases and that the virus has not yet spread to any people who have not recently returned from China.

“We understand many people in the United States are worried about this virus and how it will affect Americans,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease director, said during a daily press briefing on Monday. “Risk depends on exposure. Right now, we have a handful of patients with this new virus here in the United States.”

“However, currently in the U.S., this virus is not spreading in the community,” Dr. Messonnier explained. “For that reason, we continue to believe that the immediate health risk from the new virus to the general American public is low currently.”

CDC officials said they were or had investigated 110 cases of people possibly infected with the coronavirus. Those patients are located in 26 states. The CDC will not identify those 26 states–leaving that decision to state health officials.

Out of those, 32 people tested negative and 5 tested positive.  The states with confirmed coronavirus cases include Washington, Illinois, California, and Arizona.

Officials reported the screening of arriving passengers at certain airports continues.

“This enhanced entry screening serves two purposes,” Dr. Messonnier said. “The first is to detect illness and rapidly respond to symptomatic people entering the country. The second purpose is critical to educate travelers about these symptoms of the virus and what to do if they develop symptoms.”

Dr. Messonnier also advised that the risk of catching the coronavirus from packaging or products arriving from China is “very, very, very low” if the products are shipped over days or weeks. She explained this is, in general, because of the “poor survivability” of this particular coronavirus on physical surfaces.

“At this time we can’t fully evaluate the risks from different products that are shipped from china under different conditions,” she explained, “but coronaviruses have generally spread most often by respiratory droplets and there’s no evidence that supports transmission of this coronavirus is associated with imported goods and no cases in the U.S., associated with imported goods.”