CDC Tells Americans to Prepare for Imminent Coronavirus Spread

The World Health Organization says it’s too early to consider the coronavirus a pandemic, but to prepare for the serious possibility. As of today, the death toll has reached over 2,700 with 80,000 confirmed cases globally. Countries outside mainland China have experienced major spikes over the course of a few days. Italy went from three cases to over 320 with twelve deaths in just one weekend. South Korea has confirmed they have more than 1,260 cases also with twelve deaths. And Iran has reported 139 cases but 19 deaths. This leads people to believe a number of cases have gone undetected in Iran as their death rate is higher than the global average. Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said, “We expect we will see community spread in this country. It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many.”