CDC says 34 coronavirus cases confirmed in US

At least 34 people in the United States are infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus, and US officials are working with state and local health departments to prepare for a possible pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday.

The 34 include 13 separate US cases and 21 repatriated individuals -- 18 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan and three evacuated from Wuhan, the epic center of the disease in China, the CDC said.

Another 10 passengers from the Diamond Princess tested positive in Japan but aren’t counted among the 18 because the CDC said it has yet to confirm their tests.

The disease has killed at least 2,249 people and sickened more than 76,700 worldwide, the CDC said Friday.

The CDC said on Friday that it will change the way it reports on cases in America. It will separate those who have been repatriated from other countries to the US and those whose infections occurred on home soil.

The US repatriated 329 Americans this week from the Diamond Princess. Several American passengers onboard are still being treated in Japan, the CDC said. The number of cases in America is expected to rise based on infections developed on that ship.

Despite the increase in numbers, Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at a news briefing on Friday that it isn’t detecting spread of the virus in US communities. One person in Humboldt County, California, tested positive, authorities there reported Thursday. That person had traveled to China, the CDC said.

Messonnier said the CDC is expanding its surveillance for the disease, however, and preparing for the possibility that Covid-19 could spread more widely in the US.

"This new virus represents a tremendous public health threat," she said. "Our goal continues to be slowing the introduction of the virus into the US. This buys us more time to prepare communities for more cases and possibly sustained spread.”

Messonnier said the CDC is working with supply chain partners, hospitals, pharmacies and manufacturers to understand what medical supplies are needed.

"This will help CDC understand when we may need to take more aggressive measures to ensure that healthcare workers on the front lines have access to the supplies that they need,” she said. "We are reviewing all of our pandemic materials and adapting them to COVID-19”.

Messonnier also suggested US may also close schools and businesses as virus-stricken areas in China did to contain the virus. "The day may come where we may need to implement such measures in this country,” she said.

Meanwhile, test kits to detect the coronavirus developed by the CDC but found to be faulty won’t be ready for use by states nationwide until mid-March.

The setback means that local laboratories in US states won’t be able to run their own tests for COVID-19, while they wait for the tests kits to be remanufactured and will have to send the samples to the CDC in Atlanta instead.

The CDC had initially sent 200 kits to laboratories across the US and roughly 200 more to labs in more than 30 other countries. The kits were able to test about 700 to 800 specimens from patients. But after receiving the tests, the labs reported that the tests bought back inconclusive results.

Only three out of 100 public laboratories can use the tests, according to the Association of Public Health Laboratories. The Illinois Department of Public Health has confirmed that it is one of those labs.

The 13 US cases include seven in California, one in Massachusetts, one in Washington state, one in Arizona, two in Illinois and one in Wisconsin. Among those cases, there are two instances of person-to-person transmission, one in Illinois and one in California.

Reuters contributed to this article