THE White House has issued a public health emergency which will see some citizens quarantined and foreign travelers denied entry to the U.S. as more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases were confirmed.
The total number of deaths from the coronavirus epidemic in China had reached 259 by the end of Friday, up by 46, state broadcaster CCTV said, citing numbers from the country's National Health Commission.
It said 45 of the new deaths were in Hubei province, and one in the municipality of Chongqing.
There were 2,102 new confirmed infections in China during the day, bringing the total accumulated number to 11,791.
Donald Trump's administration had been reportedly considering the travel ban before declaring the emergency at a press briefing on Friday.
The new procedures ban foreign nationals who've traveled to within the last two weeks from entering the U.S.
Citizens who've visited the province that's considered the virus' epicenter are set to be quarantined for up to two weeks, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
This is to ensure "they’re provided proper medical care and health screening," Azar said, describing the measures as "appropriate" steps.
The drastic measures came about as officials this afternoon as the death toll soars to 290.
Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said were at a low risk of infection as roughly 10,000 people are infected globally.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said incoming flights from China will be limited to just seven airports, starting on Sunday.
The CDC confirmed "federal quarantine orders to all 195 United States citizens who repatriated to the U.S. on January 29, 2020" were issued.
"The quarantine will last 14 days from when the plane left Wuhan, China," they said in a series of explanatory tweets.
The federal agency described it as a "precautionary and preventive step to maximize the containment of the virus."
"The current epidemic in Mainland China has demonstrated the ’s capacity to spread globally," the CDC warned this afternoon.
They said the US citizens and their families who arrived from the State Department's emergency plane this week would be housed in California.
The passengers are staying at the March Air Reserve Base where they will be staying as a temporary measure.
Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases,
"We are facing an unprecedented public health threat," she said on a conference call this afternoon.
But the World Health Organisation (WHO) criticized the move, despite declaring a global emergency on Thursday.
WHO said the travel ban was against its recommendations, calling it "counterproductive," as it could make the global effort to respond to the crisis more challenging.
"Although travel restrictions may intuitively seem like the right thing to do, this is not something that WHO usually recommends,” Tarik Jašarević, a WHO spokesperson, told .
Restrictions can interrupt the supply chain of medical supplies, he explained, and the stigmatization and economic impacts for China may become a disincentive for local authorities to be transparent about further outbreaks.
Experts said travel bans could lead to a slew of downstream effects and risk complicating the public health response.
“There’s not only the financial toll on a country that is dealing with this outbreak, but this can discourage transparency, both in this outbreak and in the future,” Worsnop said.
The news comes as Delta Air Lines and American Airlines are , reports say.
While we recognize this is an unprecedented action, we are facing an unprecedented public health threat.
Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
The Delta flights will cease on Feb. 6 - for three months - and the stop lasts through April 30, announced.
The major carrier, however, will continue operations until Feb. 6 to "ensure customers looking to exit China have options to do so."
Earlier, the US State Department warned Americans to avoid traveling to China as the death toll rises.
The State Department's advisory is a Level 4 — which means the U.S. government is warning citizens against traveling there.
The Level 4 advisory is the highest government travel warning there is regarding safety and security in foreign countries.
Level 3, for example, is the government advising citizens to "reconsider" traveling to a location.
"Travelers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice," the advisory states.
"Commercial carriers have reduced or suspended routes to and from China."
The vast majority of the cases have been in China's Hubei province and its provincial capital, Wuhan.
The new Coronavirus is believed to have originated late last year in a food market in Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause infections ranging from the common cold to (SARS).
The new virus has a wide range of symptoms, including fever, coughing, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
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Health experts think it may have originated in and then passed to humans, possibly via another animal species.
It can be transmitted from person-to-person, although it is not clear how easily that happens.
Most cases so far have been confirmed in people who have been in Wuhan, family members of those infected, or medical workers.
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