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21:05 GMT
WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (KUNA) -- Beginning Friday travelers from Wuhan will undergo entry screening for symptoms at San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles international airports, which receive most of the travelers from Wuhan, said health authorities Friday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement that it was closely monitoring an outbreak caused by a novel (new) coronavirus in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.
Chinese authorities identified the new coronavirus, which has resulted in more than 40 confirmed human infections in China with two deaths reported, according to the statement.
A number of countries are actively screening incoming travelers from Wuhan and there has been one exported case confirmed in Thailand and another in Japan.
Chinese health authorities posted the full genome of the so-called "2019 novel coronavirus" or "2019-nCoV" in GenBank, the NIH genetic sequence database, and in the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAI) portal.
Most of the patients in the outbreak in Wuhan, China have reportedly had some link to a large seafood and animal market, suggesting animal-to-person spread. Some patients in the outbreak reportedly have not had exposure to animal markets, suggesting that some limited person-to-person spread may be occurring, it added.
Chinese health authorities have reported that most patients in China visited a large seafood and animal market. They additionally report that several hundred health care workers caring for outbreak patients are being monitored and no spread of this virus from patients to health care workers has been detected.
They report no sustained spread of this virus in the community, but there are indications that some limited person-to-person spread may have occurred. Cases outside China have all occurred in travelers from Wuhan, it noted.
There is much more to learn about how the 2019-nCoV virus spreads, severity of associated illness, and other features of the virus. Investigations are ongoing in China, Thailand and Japan. Based on current information, however, the risk from 2019-nCoV to the American public is deemed to be low at this time, it concluded. (end)
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