San Francisco Declares Coronavirus 'State of Emergency'

San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency amid concerns over the international outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, and the disease it causes in humans, known as COVID-19. 

This declaration was announced on February 25, 2020, and is effective for 7 days even though there have been no coronavirus cases confirmed in San Francisco.

San Francisco's board of supervisors is scheduled to vote to ratify this emergency declaration on March 3rd.

While no coronavirus cases have been confirmed in San Francisco, “the global picture is changing rapidly, and we need to step-up preparedness,” Mayor Breed said in a statement.

However, the state of California has not followed San Francisco's preemptive action.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) says it understands there are concerns about novel coronavirus, and understandably so. 

Although coronaviruses are a group of viruses that aren’t new, this is a new type of coronavirus and we are still learning about it. 

'There is no evidence of sustained person-to-person transmission of the virus in the United States. One instance of person-to-person transmission was confirmed in San Benito County, California, but it was with a close household contact,' says the CDPH website. 

As of February 25, 2020, there are 10 cases of COVID-19 disease confirmed in California by a CDC lab testing.

Approximately 200 persons in California have been tested during 2020.

We are actively working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with local governments and healthcare providers across the state to protect your health.

Fourteen cases have been diagnosed in the USA, in addition to 39 cases among repatriated persons from high-risk settings, for a current total of 53 cases within the USA, reports the CDC.

The U.S. government and public health partners are implementing aggressive measures to slow and contain transmission of COVID-19 in the USA.

On February 26th, Mr. Benjamin Haynes with the CDC said during a telebriefing, 'the U.S. has been implementing an aggressive containment strategy that requires detecting, tracking, and isolating all cases. As much as possible and preventing more introduction of disease notably at points of entry.' 

'We’ve restricted travel into the United States while also issuing extensive travel advisories for countries currently experiencing community spread.  Our travel notices are changing almost daily.'

'We’ve also enacted the first quarantine of this scale in the U.S.'

'To date, our containment strategies have been largely successful.  As a result, we have very few cases in the United States and no spread in the community,' said Haynes.

As of February 24, 2020, a total of 1,336 CDC staff members have been involved in the COVID-19 response, including physicians, nurses, and pharmacists, epidemiologists, veterinarians, laboratorians, communicators, data scientists and modelers, and coordination staff members. 

Of these CDC staff members, 497 (37%) have been deployed to 39 locations in the United States and internationally, including CDC quarantine stations at U.S. ports of entry, state and local health departments, hospitals, and U.S. military bases that are housing quarantined persons, as well as WHO and ministries of health around the world. 

The CDC has not declared a national emergency, as of February 26, 2020.

SARS-CoV-2 outbreak news published by Coronavirus Today.com.