Contagion Live News Network: Coronavirus Updates for March 6, 2020

Welcome to the Contagion® Live News Network. I’m Michaela Fleming and this is the COVID-19 update for Friday, March 6, 2020.

In the latest briefing from the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Vice President Mike Pence, announced that there are more than 100 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States. The task force has also met with executives from the airline industry, commercial labs, and nursing homes to bolster preparedness plans and develop new standards to keep Americans safe.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13 states have reported confirmed or presumptive positive cases of COVID-19. Washington State has the highest number of cases with 70 confirmed illnesses and 10 associated deaths. California has 60 positive cases and 1 death. Of the confirmed cases in California, 42 of them are linked to repatriation or international travel. Cases are rising rapidly in New York, where there are 22 confirmed cases across the state with an additional 24 testing results pending, and 122 individuals under investigation.

In response to the rise in cases, the US Senate passed an $8.3 billion bill to fight the outbreak. This came just a day after the bill was approved by the House of Representatives. President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law shortly. More than $3 billion is expected to be put into research and development of treatments, vaccines, and testing.

In an article on ContagionLive.com IDSA president Dr. Thomas File, Jr., called for a unified approach from all sectors of society to fight against COVID-19.

“With the increasing spread of COVID-19, the need for readily available expertise in infectious diseases has never been more critical,” Dr. File wrote.

For more information on COVID-19, visit ContagionLive.com. To track the spread of coronavirus in the United States and abroad, be sure to use the Contagion® Outbreak Monitor.

For the Contagion Live News Network, I’m Michaela Fleming. Thanks for watching.