8,400 people being monitored for coronavirus in California
California Governor Gavin Newsom spoke hours after Donald Trump appointed Mike Pence as the United States' coronavirus tsar
Over 8,000 people are being monitored for coronavirus in California, the state’s governor said. Governor Gavin Newsom told a press conference Tuesday that 8,400 people who may have come in contact with the virus are being monitored for signs of Covid-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. So far, 33 cases have been confirmed across the golden state.
Newsom said: ‘We are not overreacting but we are not underreacting. ‘Yesterday’s case generated a lot of attention, but we all knew this was inevitable.’ He was referring to a case flagged by the Centers for Disease Control Wednesday feared to be the first diagnosis of a person who hadn’t traveled to an affected area.
That has sparked speculation that coronavirus is now spreading from person to person within the US. The CDC have been condemned after it emerged that patient, who lives in Solano County, spend four days in hospital before its officials heeded requests to test them for Covid-19.
They waited over half a week despite receiving an email saying that the patient had arrived on a ventilator, and that the patient was suffering ‘an undiagnosed and suspected viral condition.’ So far, 60 people have been diagnosed with the Covid-19 in the US.
The disease, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has infected a total of 82,487 people, with 2,809 known to have died as a result.
It can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia and is believed to be spread in droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
It has seen stock markets across the world slump, triggering fears of a recession.
Donald Trump moved to allay fears about the disease Wednesday by appointing Vice President Mike Pence as ‘coronavirus tsar.’
President Trump told a press conference: ‘The risk to the American people remains very low.
‘We’re very, very ready for this — for anything.’