43 cases of coronavirus, 6 deaths in the US but risk to Americans ‘remains low,’ Pence says at WH briefing
Vice President Pence provides update on Trump administration’s response to coronavirus
The risk to the American public from the coronavirus remains low, says Vice President Mike Pence.
Vice President Mike Pence confirmed that there are 43 cases of coronavirus in the U.S. but said the risk «remains low» for Americans.
Officials confirmed the virus killed four additional people in the U.S. raising the death toll to six.
«Despite today’s sad news, let’s be clear. The risk to the American people of the coronavirus remains low according to all of the experts we are working with across the government,» Pence said.
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Speaking alongside top health officials on Monday at a White House briefing on coronavirus, Pence said that 29 of the domestic cases of the virus are either in California or Washington.
Health officials added that 17 of the patients in the U.S. contracted the virus while traveling, while 26 are believed to have gotten sick through person-to-person contact.
The vice president is heading the Trump administration’s coronavirus response efforts and has selected Ambassador Deborah Birx to assist him with crisis response efforts.
Trump met with top pharmaceutical industry executives on Monday before the briefing, and Pence said that industry executives would be cross collaborating to share information about a potential vaccine, which might not become available until later this year or early next year.
Relief medications for coronavirus could be available by this summer or early fall, Pence said.
The U.S. also issued a new travel advisory on Sunday for Italy and South Korea, and Pence announced that within the next 12 hours, both countries will have implemented new health screenings, which include multiple temperature readings at the airports before boarding a flight to the U.S., at all of their international airports.
Pence did not specify whether the administration would expand travel advisories to other countries but said the current advisories «may expand but we’ll allow the caseload in those countries to advise that.»
Health officials added that health labs have the capacity to conduct about 75,000 and 100,000 tests but estimate that close to a million new testing kits will be available by the end of this week to screen for the virus in the U.S.
