The first U.S. case of a new coronavirus has been confirmed
A man in Seattle has been confirmed as the first U.S. case of a novel coronavirus that emerged in central China, where it has killed six people and sickened hundreds more in recent weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials are also ramping up health screenings at U.S. airports, after Chinese public health officials said January 20 that the virus can spread from person to person — a factor that raises concerns of an international epidemic emerging. It’s still unclear how easily the virus spreads between humans. The World Health Organization said it would convene an emergency committee on January 22 in Geneva to decide whether to declare a global health emergency. “The confirmation that human-to-human spread with this virus is occurring in Asia certainly raises our level of concern,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, during a telephone news conference on January 21. However, the agency believes the risk “to the...