WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th January, 2020) US experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are on standby to leave to China to help in the battle against the coronavirus, Health Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday.
"[This] is the offer that we have made, which we do hope that the Chinese government will take us up on," Azar told a media briefing. "CDC experts are on standby waiting to go to China to help out with the crisis."
Azar also said efforts were underway to assist Americans who needed to be repatriated to the United States, amid ongoing research work on assessing possible vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics to fight the outbreak.
CDC said it is expanding to 20 airports the screening for the virus, which was initially carried out at five airports and limited to flights coming in from Wuhan, the city at the epicenter of the outbreak.
Separately, the World Health Organization said it was also sending international experts to China as soon as possible to work with their Chinese counterparts to better understand and coordinate the global response to the coronavirus.
The coronavirus has killed 106 people so far in China and infected over 4,520 worldwide, unifying Beijing with a host of countries in a global effort to contain the pandemic.
