A top official at the U.S. National Institutes of Health said the outbreak of the new coronavirus, called COVID-19, is on the verge of turning into a global pandemic unless efforts to curb its spread become more fruitful.
As of Sunday, about two-dozen countries have more than 500 cases, he said. “Several of them, are starting to get to the second and third transmission,” Fauci said, adding that a pandemic means that there are several countries with sustained transmission from “person to person to person.”
The World Health Organization has already declared the virus a health emergency of international concern.
Over the weekend, health officials in France and Taiwan confirmed two deaths in their respective countries.
Meanwhile, more than 350 cases of people infected with the COVID-19 virus were confirmed on the Diamond Princess cruise ship located off the coast of Yokohama, Japan. U.S. officials announced that they were evacuating hundreds of Americans who were being held on the ship on Sunday evening.
The U.S. Department of Defense has said it is preparing to receive two flights with passengers, and one will land at Travis Air Force Base, California and the other at Kelly Field-Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The evacuees would be subject to a 14-day quarantine.
Another cruise ship, Holland America’s MS Westerdam, docked in Cambodia on Thursday after being rejected by ports elsewhere. An 83-year-old American passenger tested positive for the COVID-19 virus upon arriving in Malaysia, authorities there said. A second test requested by the cruise operator confirmed the finding.