The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified Orange County health officials Saturday that a potential case of coronavirus tested positive.
The person who tested positive traveled from Wuhan, China, -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- and is in isolation and in "good condition" at a local hospital, the Orange County Health Care Agency said in a statement.
State and federal officials are following up with anyone who may have had close contact with the person and is at risk of infection.
The CDC said it's taking aggressive measures to stop the spread of the virus in the United States, but while it considers it a serious public health threat, the immediate risk to Americans is low.
At least 56 people have been killed by the coronavirus in China, nearly 2,000 confirmed cases have been reported as the nation struggles to contain the outbreak.
Chinese authorities have imposed indefinite restrictions on public transport and travel, with motor vehicles banned in Wuhan's city center starting Sunday to control the flow of people. Only vehicles with special permits, free shuttles and government vehicles will be allowed to move around.
Amid the lockdown, countries like the US and France have been trying to evacuate their citizens from the central Chinese city. Outside of China, more than 40 confirmed cases have been identified in about a dozen countries.
Coronaviruses are transmitted by animals and people, and the Wuhan strain has been linked to a market in the city that was selling seafood and live animals, including wild species. The Chinese government announced Sunday that is banning all sales of wild animals throughout the country
Beijing will deploy an additional 1,600 medical professionals to Wuhan to help the city cope with the growing number of coronavirus patients, health officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified Orange County health officials Saturday that a potential case of coronavirus tested positive.
The person who tested positive traveled from Wuhan, China, -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- and is in isolation and in "good condition" at a local hospital, the Orange County Health Care Agency said in a statement.
State and federal officials are following up with anyone who may have had close contact with the person and is at risk of infection.
The CDC said it's taking aggressive measures to stop the spread of the virus in the United States, but while it considers it a serious public health threat, the immediate risk to Americans is low.
At least 56 people have been killed by the coronavirus in China, nearly 2,000 confirmed cases have been reported as the nation struggles to contain the outbreak.
Chinese authorities have imposed indefinite restrictions on public transport and travel, with motor vehicles banned in Wuhan's city center starting Sunday to control the flow of people. Only vehicles with special permits, free shuttles and government vehicles will be allowed to move around.
Amid the lockdown, countries like the US and France have been trying to evacuate their citizens from the central Chinese city. Outside of China, more than 40 confirmed cases have been identified in about a dozen countries.
Coronaviruses are transmitted by animals and people, and the Wuhan strain has been linked to a market in the city that was selling seafood and live animals, including wild species. The Chinese government announced Sunday that is banning all sales of wild animals throughout the country
Beijing will deploy an additional 1,600 medical professionals to Wuhan to help the city cope with the growing number of coronavirus patients, health officials said.
The third U.S. case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Orange County, California, the OC Health Care Agency's Communicable Disease Control Division announced in a press release Sunday.
"The OC Health Care Agency's (HCA) Communicable Disease Control Division received confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this evening that an Orange County, California case has tested positive for the novel coronavirus," the agency said.
The patient has been described as a traveler from Wuhan, China — the epicenter of the disease's outbreak — and is in isolation in a hospital in "good condition," according to the release.
The new respiratory illness has so far sickened more than 1,975 people and killed 56, the majority of which are in Wuhan.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
Chinese President Xi Jinping warned of the „grave situation“ posed by the deadly coronavirus outbreak and promised ramped-up measures were coming from the government to address and contain the virus.
Multiple reports said Xi announced the government was establishing a task force to address the crisis, and citizens could expect increased monitoring of public spaces and more resources opening up in affected areas.
As 12 cities were officially put on lockdown, citizens called for Beijing to step in after online posts slammed local officials who appeared to have botched their initial response to the virus.
Chinese President Xi Jinping warned of the „grave situation“ posed by the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Xi convened a special government meeting on the Lunar New Year holiday, and spoke alongside Communist Party leadership in some of his first comments warning of the massive outbreak, according to reported summaries by state television.
„Confronted with the grave situation of this accelerating spread of pneumonia from infections with the novel coronavirus, we must step up the centralized and united leadership under the party central“ Xi said, according to The New York Times.
The president then outlined a plan for country-wide measures to confront the spread of the outbreak, including ramping up treatment for patients and distributing resources to affected areas.
The Times reported that leadership said it will establish a task force to address the crisis, that among other measures, could engage local and military medical resources and ensure increased monitoring of passengers and visitors at railway stations, airports, and ports.
„We’re sure to be able to win in this battle to beat the epidemic through prevention and control,“ Xi said.
The president’s comments come after he was relatively silent about the spreading virus as frustrations grew over authorities in the Chinese province identified as the outbreak’s epicenter.
Local officials in Wuhan, a city of roughly 11 million in the central China Hubei province, were at the front of the initial response to increasing reports of a mysterious virus.
The city been quarantined since Thursday and travel in or out is of the area was canceled. However, Wuhan’s mayor admitted that initial „warnings were not sufficient,“ just one aspect of the public health response that he said was largely botched.
Trending posts on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo called for the Communist Party to address the crisis as citizens bristled under measures like the government-ordered quarantine of 35 million people across 12 cities.
Multiple reports recalled the Chinese government’s response to the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic that originated in China before it sickened 8,000 and killed 744, in which officials largely tried to cover up the deadly spread until a whistleblower revealed the true scale of the disease.
It appears the government has taken a wholly different approach since the outbreak two weeks ago, as the World Health Organization said throughout its work so far in the country, Beijing had been cooperative and transparent in coordinated efforts to address the virus.
ANKARA, Turkey – The death toll from a strong earthquake that rocked eastern Turkey climbed to 22 Saturday, with more than 1,000 people injured, officials said.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, speaking at a televised news conference near the epicenter of the quake, said 39 people had been rescued from the rubble of collapsed buildings, including a woman recovered 14 hours after the main tremor.
Rescue workers were continuing to search for people buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Elazig province and neighboring Malatya, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said earlier.
Emergency workers and security forces distributed tents, beds and blankets as overnight temperatures dropped below freezing in the affected areas. Mosques, schools, sports halls and student dormitories were opened for hundreds who left their homes after the quake.
Rescue workers try to reach people under a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Elazig in the eastern Turkey, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020. The earthquake rocked eastern Turkey on Friday, causing some buildings to collapse and killing scores of people, Turkish officials said. (IHA via AP)
“The earthquake was very severe, we desperately ran out (of our home),” Emre Gocer told the state-run Anadolu news agency as he sheltered with his family at a sports hall in the town of Sivrice in Elazig. “We don’t have a safe place to stay right now.”
The quake hit Friday at 8:55 p.m. local time (1755 GMT) at a depth of 6.7 kilometers (around 4 miles) near Sivrice, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, or AFAD, said. Various earthquake monitoring centers gave magnitudes ranging from 6.5 to 6.8.
AFAD said it was followed by 228 aftershocks, the strongest with magnitudes 5.4 and 5.1.
At least five buildings in Sivrice and 25 in Malatya province were destroyed, said Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum. Hundreds of other structures were damaged and made unsafe.
Soylu said 18 people were killed in Elazig and four in Malatya. Some 1,030 people were hurt. Speaking at the same news conference, Koca said 34 people remain in intensive care.
Television footage showed emergency workers removing two people from the wreckage of a collapsed building in the town of Gezin. Another person was saved in the city of Elazig, the provincial capital, and two more from a house in Doganyol, Malatya.
A prison in Adiyaman, 110 kilometers (70 miles) southwest of the epicenter, was evacuated after being damaged in the quake.
AFAD said 28 rescue teams had been working around the clock. More than 2,600 personnel from 39 of Turkey’s 81 provinces were sent to the disaster site.
“Our biggest hope is that the death toll does not rise,” Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop said.
Rescuers work on a collapsed building after a strong earthquake struck in Elazig in the eastern Turkey, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020. The earthquake rocked eastern Turkey on Friday, causing some buildings to collapse and killing scores of people, Turkish officials said. (IHA via AP)
Communication companies announced free telephone and internet services for residents in the quake-hit region, while Turkish Airlines announced extra flights.
Soylu said emergency work was proceeding under the threat of aftershocks.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter overnight that all measures were being taken to "ensure that the earthquake that occurred in Elazig and was felt in many provinces is overcome with the least amount of loss."
Neighboring Greece, which is at odds with Turkey over maritime boundaries and gas exploitation rights, offered to send rescue crews should they be needed.
Elazig is some 565 kilometers (350 miles) east of the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Turkey sits on top of two major fault lines and earthquakes are frequent. Two strong earthquakes struck northwest Turkey in 1999, killing around 18,000 people.
A magnitude 6 earthquake killed 51 people in Elazig in 2010.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Saturday her government is raising its response level to the highest level – emergency – and closing schools for two weeks, as authorities rush to contain the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
The outbreak, which started in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, has left 41 people dead in China. The country's National Health Commission says 1,287 people are infected.
Wuhan has been locked down for days, with public transportation halted and flights and trains out of the city suspended. Lockdowns now embrace more than a dozen cities across China, affecting more than 50 million people, The Associated Press reports.
Despite efforts to prevent the outbreak from spreading, cases have cropped up overseas. The U.S. confirmed a second case of coronavirus on Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said more than 60 people in 22 states are being monitored for possible infection.
Authorities believe the virus, which causes flu-like symptoms, moved into the human population from an infected animal at a market in Wuhan. Chinese health officials and the World Health Organization confirmed this week that the virus has been transmitted person-to-person, but it remains unclear how easy it is to contract from another infected individual.
People wear masks after visiting Wong Tai Sin temple on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Rat in Hong Kong on January 25, 2020, as a preventative measure.
DALE DE LA REY/AFP via Getty Images
Chinese President Xi Jinping has held a special government meeting on the Lunar New Year public holiday to warn that the spread of a deadly new virus is "accelerating".
The country is facing a "grave situation" Mr Xi told senior officials, according to state television.
The coronavirus has killed at least 41 people and infected almost 1,300 since its discovery in the city of Wuhan.
Travel restrictions have already hit several affected cities.
And from Sunday, private vehicles will be banned from the central districts of Wuhan, the source of the outbreak.
A second emergency hospital is to be built there within weeks to handle 1,300 new patients, and will be finished in half a month, state newspaper the People's Daily said. It is the second such rapid construction project: work on another 1,000-bed hospital has already begun.
Specialist military medical teams have also been flown into Hubei province, where Wuhan is located.
The urgency reflects concern both within China and elsewhere about the spread of the virus which first appeared in December.
Lunar New Year celebrations for the year of the rat, which began on Saturday, have been cancelled in many Chinese cities.
Across mainland China, travellers are having their temperatures checked for signs of fever, and train stations have been shut in several cities.
In Hong Kong, the highest level of emergency has been declared and school holidays extended.
Several other nations are each dealing with a handful of cases, with patients being treated in isolation.
What is the coronavirus, and what does it do?
A coronavirus is a family of viruses which include the common cold.
But this virus has never been seen before, so it's been called 2019-nCov, for "novel coronavirus".
New viruses can become common in humans after jumping across the species barrier from animals.
The Sars [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] outbreak of 2003 started in bats and transferred to the civet cat which passed it on to humans.
This new virus also causes severe acute respiratory infection.
Symptoms seem to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough and then, after a week, lead to shortness of breath and some patients needing hospital treatment.
Based on early information, it is believed that only a quarter of infected cases are "severe", and the dead are mostly - though not exclusively - older people, some of whom have pre-existing conditions.
What's happening at the source?
The city of Wuhan is effectively on lockdown, with heavy restrictions on travel in and out, and public transport options from buses to planes cancelled.
It is a major population centre with up to 11 million inhabitants - comparable in size to London.
Pharmacies in the city have begun to run out of supplies and hospitals have been filled with nervous members of the public.
But even for those free of infection, there has been an impact on daily life, as officials have urged people to avoid crowds and gatherings.
"The whole transport system has been shut down," Kathleen Bell, who is is originally from the UK and works in Wuhan, told the BBC. "From midnight tonight private cars are not allowed on the road. And taxis aren't running."
"You have queues of people lining up to be seen, some may not have the virus, and some may, and they're all in the same space," she said.
Major Western brands such as McDonald's and Starbucks have closed in the city and in others nearby.
"The streets are pretty much empty," said Mustafa Siddiqui, a businessman in Wuhan. "No-one's going outside."
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"There's no real panic. There is calm. There is nothing really happening."
The surrounding Hubei province is also deeply affected, with nearly a dozen cities enduring some sort of travel restriction.
Where has it spread?
There are now nearly 1,300 confirmed cases all across China, though most concentrated in those closest to Hubei.
But it has also spread abroad - in isolated cases affecting small numbers of patients.
On Saturday, Australia confirmed its first four cases - first in Melbourne, and then three more in Sydney.
It has also spread to Europe, with three cases confirmed in France. The UK is investigating a number of suspected cases, with officials trying to trace around 2,000 people who have recently flown to the UK from Hubei province.
The cases largely involve people who had recently travelled from the affected region in China.
China's neighbours in the Asia region are on high alert, however, with cases reported in Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea and Nepal.
There are also cases in the United States.
The World Health Organization has not classed the virus as an "international emergency", partly because of the low number of overseas cases.
What is the impact on new year celebrations?
The Lunar New Year is one of the most important dates in the calendar in China, where millions of people travel home - something that is a problem for preventing the spread of a virus.
Authorities have shut major tourist sites including the Forbidden City in Beijing and a section of the Great Wall, and cancelled major public events in other parts of the country, including:
Traditional temple fairs in Beijing
An international carnival in Hong Kong
Hong Kong's annual football tournament
All public Lunar New Year celebrations in Macau
Shanghai's Disney Resort is temporarily closing.
In the capital, Beijing, and also in Shanghai, officials have asked residents who return from affected areas to stay at home for 14 days to prevent the spread of the virus, local media report.
