WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2020) � US health authorities are expected to announce later on Tuesday the first local case of the coronavirus, CNN reported, citing a Federal source outside the public health institute.
It remains unclear whether the individual who contracted the virus traveled to China or how and where the person became infected, the report said.
The CDC, on its website, said it has scheduled a briefing at 2 p.m. ET (19:00 GMT) to provide an update on the coronavirus.�
The CDC announced last week that it had stepped up screening for the Novel Coronavirus 2019 (2019-nCoV) among airline passengers traveling between the United States and China's Wuhan.
The outbreak of a new coronavirus that originated from China's city of Wuhan has recently become a point of grave concern over global health security with the death toll from the pneumonia-like disease reaching six people with over 200 more being infected since late December.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses causing a wide range of human diseases, from a common cold to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and middle East Respiratory Syndrome. However, according to the World Health Organization, the current outbreak is caused by a new coronavirus (nCoV), which has never been identified in humans previously. In total, coronavirus infection accounts for from 4 to 20 percent of all Acute Respiratory Viral Infections.
