PA Preparing For Coronavirus Outbreak After Dire CDC Warning

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania state health officials are preparing after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a dire warning Tuesday, saying communities across the nation should prepare now for the spread of COVID-19, the new coronavirus.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease, told reporters in a conference call the question is no longer if the coronavirus, now officially called COVID-19, will spread across the United States but when that will happen.

Communities, schools and businesses in Pennsylvania and elsewhere should begin preparing now for “the expectation that this could be bad,” Messonnier said.

“I understand this whole situation may seem overwhelming and that disruption to everyday life may be severe. But these are things that people need to start thinking about now,” she said. “You should think about what you would do for child care if schools or day cares closed.”

To date, no one in Pennsylvania has tested positive for COVID-19, state health officials confirmed Tuesday. But state officials say they're preparing for a spread of the disease across the community.

“As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised today, we need to be prepared for community spread of COVID-19. We are working to make sure our health systems, first responders and county and municipal health departments have the resources they need to respond," Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine said.

“We know through our work with CDC in planning for disease outbreaks that it is best to prepare now.” Levine said.

So far in Pennsylvania, officials have activated the Department of Health’s Emergency Operations Center to allow for enhanced response coordination. Symptom monitoring has been done for residents returning to Pennsylvania from China.

Additionally, the state has reviewed and adapted current pandemic flu plans for COVID-19.

Globally, at least 80,000 people have been infected and 2,700 people have died from the new coronavirus, creating a global pandemic, according to the World Health Organization. It is spreading so quickly overseas that infectious disease experts and scientists warn there may be no way to contain it.

As of Tuesday, 57 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the United States, according to Levine.

Three dozen of the patients in the United States diagnosed with the disease are among passengers repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined for weeks off the coast of Japan; three patients were infected in Wuhan, China, the center of the outbreak, and the others contracted the virus while traveling abroad.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news conference Monday the “sudden increase in new cases” outside of China is “deeply concerning.”

The symptoms of the new coronavirus are similar to seasonal influenza, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Both are infectious respiratory illnesses, but they’re caused by different viruses.

Both cause fever, cough, body aches and fatigue, and can result in pneumonia. Both illnesses can sometimes cause vomiting and diarrhea. Both can be spread from person to person by sneezing, coughing or talking.

Common good-health practices such as frequent hand-washing, covering coughs and staying home from work or school during the course of the illness can help control the spread of both illnesses.

Neither responds to antibiotic treatment, but both may be treated by addressing symptoms, such as reducing fever. Both illnesses can be severe enough to require hospitalization.

But there are some distinct differences between the two:

Flu is caused by several different types of viruses, while COVID-19 is caused by the new coronavirus, which is also called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2.

Johns Hopkins says there is some evidence COVID-19 could be airborne, “meaning that tiny droplets remaining in the air could cause disease in others even after the ill person is no longer near.”

There is no vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus, as there is against influenza. Scientists around the world are racing to find a vaccine for the new coronavirus, although none currently exists.

A company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has shipped vials of its novel coronavirus vaccine to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease for further research.