Novel coronavirus ‘is probably with us beyond this season, beyond this year,’ CDC director says
CNNCNN — As an outbreak of a novel coronavirus has swept through Hubei province, China, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been preparing for its worst case scenario – a widespread outbreak of illnessesin the United States. “Right now we’re in an aggressive containment mode,” CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in an interview on Thursday. “We don’t have any evidence that this coronavirus is really embedded in the community at this time, but with that said, we want to intensify our surveillance so that we’re basing those conclusions based on data.” The containment strategy refers to efforts to prevent widespread transmission of the coronavirus in the United States, including having people with confirmed cases stay in isolation and placing restrictions on travel between affected areas in the world. Why do we?” In response, Redfield spoke more to the restrictions on US citizens, saying, “The issue here was first a strong commitment to take care of the Americans that are going to come back, whether they happen to potentially have this virus or not – and you saw that with the over 800 individuals that the State Department has repatriated and we’ve assisted in that.” Employees with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention work at the Emergency Operations Center in Atlanta on Thursday, February 13. “There’s a lot of information we don’t know – that’s why I offered to provide assistance, direct assistance, and send our CDC folks over there back on January 6 to really help them gather that information and also to help us see the information first hand that we need to help make the right public health recommendations for our nation,” Redfield said.