State: Risk 'Low' As Coronavirus Declared Global Health Emergency

State health officials maintain the new coronavirus risk for Massachusetts residents is low, even as the World Health Organization on Thursday afternoon declared the new coronavirus a global health emergency.

The Department of Health told Patch Thursday evening there are still no confirmed cases in Massachusetts. It also repeated what it has been saying for days: "The risk to Mass. residents is currently low."

Global health authorities see more cause for concern. More than 7,000 cases of the virus has been confirmed across the globe, and the death toll sits at 170 as of Thursday evening.

The U.S. State Department issued Thursday night a "do not travel" to China advisory.

The decision to call the coronavirus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern came as the U.S. saw its first case of human-to-human transmission of the virus. The husband of a woman in Chicago who had contracted the illness also received it; The woman had recently returned from Wuhan, China, where officials believe the virus to have originated.

The DPH said the best prevention is the same as for other viruses, including the flu.