Coronavirus Likely To Cause Global Pandemic - US Centers For Disease Control

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2020) Prevailing global conditions signal that the coronavirus is likely to cause a worldwide pandemic, a senior US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official told reporters.

"Current global circumstances suggest it's likely that this virus will cause a pandemic," CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat said on Tuesday. "Now 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 people in this country will become infected."

Once a global pandemic had begun, risk assessment would be different and new strategies tailored to local circumstances would need to be implemented to blunt the impact of the disease and further slow the spread of the virus, Schuchat said.

"What these interventions would look like at the community level will vary depending on local conditions and on the emerging information about how severe the virus may be," she said.

On Monday, the Trump administration asked Congress for an additional $2.5 billion for developing a coronavirus vaccine and preparing for a widespread outbreak.