California's governor reported more than 8,400 people in the state are under medical monitoring after a potential mass exposure to a deadly coronavirus has forced health officials into action, as Donald Trump continued to downplay the threat of the virus while US markets plummeted to historic lows.
Meanwhile, a recently revealed whistleblower report claims that US health officials sent crews to evacuate Americans from China without any protective gear or training as they entered the outbreak's epicentre in Wuhan.
The Dow Jones made its largest one-day point decline in history, surpassing Monday's 1,031-point drop, despite the president's attempts to calm market fears that the US was working to contain the outbreak.
Health officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed more than 60 cases in the US and said more were expected to come in the following weeks.
But the president's appointment of Vice President Mike Pence to lead the administration's response has rattled officials, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi telling reporters at her weekly briefing that she discussed her concerns with his role.
Meanwhile, Mr Pence told his allies that "we're ready for anything" while the White House takes control of all coronavirus-related messaging and statements, silencing health officials in the administration and across the federal response.
He also tapped National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow - who falsely claimed just two days ago that the virus outbreak has been "contained" - to the government's coronavirus task force.
Janet Yellen, the former chair of the Federal Reserve, said the coronavirus “could throw the United States into a recession” if it substantially hits the country. Confirmed cases of the virus have increased in recent days across the globe, with fears of a potential pandemic only continuing to grow.
Follow the latest updates
Donald Trump has told Americans the risk remains "very low" as he placed his vice president, Mike Pence, in charge of the US response to the disease.
At a White House briefing with his coronavirus task force, the US president defended his administration's response to the crisis and said public health officials were "ready, willing and able" to move quickly if the virus spreads.
Donald Trump's decision to name his vice president, Mike Pence, as head of the US response to the coronavirus, has been criticised by the Democratic National Committee, who blamed Mr Pence for aggravating a severe Aids outbreak among intravenous drug users while he was governor of Indiana.
Trump appoints Mike Pence to lead US coronavirus response despite playing down fears
Former Indiana governor opposed calls for clean needle exchange during outbreak of Aids among state's drug users
Speaking at a White House briefing with his coronavirus task force, Mr Trump said he would accept whatever emergency spending Congress decided was appropriate for the crisis.
The US president said he was not ready to institute new travel restrictions for countries dealing with outbreaks, such as South Korea and Italy, although he could not rule it out.
"The risk to the American people remains very low," Mr Trump said, flanked by Mr Pence and public health officials.
"We're ready to adapt and we're ready to do whatever we have to as the disease spreads, if it spreads," he said, adding the spread of the virus in the US was not "inevitable."
"It probably will, it possibly will. It could be at a very small level, or it could be at a larger level. Whatever happens we're totally prepared," he said.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, has said while the virus was contained in the US, Americans must prepare for a potential outbreak as transmissions spread outside of China.
"If we have a pandemic, then almost certainly we are going to get impacted," Mr Fauci told CNN.
The US health and human services secretary Alex Azar said the US has 59 coronavirus cases, including 42 American passengers repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan.
US stocks turned lower in afternoon trading on Wednesday in a fresh wave of selling sparked by fears of the coronavirus spreading in the US.
The S&P 500 index fell for a fifth straight day and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 123.77 points, or 0.46 per cent.
Global stock markets have slumped in recent days due to worries over a prolonged disruption to supply chains and economies from the virus, which has infected about 80,000 people and killed nearly 3,000, mostly in China.
Mr Trump, who is running for a second term in the November election, has been increasingly alarmed by the drop in US stock markets, which he considers a barometer of the health of the American economy and sees as important to his re-election.
He told reporters at the White House that fears of the coronavirus had hurt the stock markets, but he also blamed the Democratic presidential candidates for spooking investors.
"I think the financial markets are very upset when they look at the Democrat candidates standing on that stage making fools out of themselves," Mr Trump said in a reference to debates that are part of the process toward nominating a Democrat to run against Republican president.
The former chair of the Federal Reserve has warned the deadly coronavirus “could throw the United States into a recession” as health officials with the CDC said the outbreak reaching the US was effectively inevitable.
Janet Yellen, who served as chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018, reportedly said the epidemic would have to reach sizable proportions within the country for such an economic impact to occur.
“It's just conceivable that it could throw the United States into a recession," she said. “If it doesn't hit in a substantial way in the United States, that's less likely.”
Ms Yellen added: “We had a pretty solid outlook before this happened — and there is some risk, but basically I think the US outlook looks pretty good."
Still, the former chair said she “would bet” a recession doesn’t occur “in the coming year”.
Meanwhile, coronavirus is causing ‘ghost towns’ in impacted countries like Italy
Julia Buckley visited Italy, where 400 infections and 12 deaths have sent many residents into self-isolation, to report on what it’s like when a picturesque place like northern Italy goes into quarantine.
Saudi Arabia has banned all religious pilgrims and foreigners from coronavirus-hit countries from entering the country over outbreak fears.
The country’s decision comes just months before the annual hajj pilgrimage and after 220 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 illness have been recorded in the Middle East.
The move stops tourists and pilgrims from reaching the holy city of Mecca and the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims pray toward five times a day.
Iran's vice-president has been diagnosed with coronavirus, state media have reported, as the country struggles to continue to spread of the disease.
Masoumeh Ebtekar is among 254 people infected with the virus in the Middle Eastern nation, where 26 people have been killed by the outbreak.
She is better known internationally as the English-language spokeswoman for the hostage-takers who seized the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, sparking a 444-day diplomatic crisis.
As airlines worldwide ground planes and lay off staff as a result of the coronavirus, one US carrier aims to get people travelling by suspending its normal fare rules.
JetBlue, a “boutique” airline based in New York with a big hub at Boston, says passengers who want to cancel or change their trips can do so without penalty.
The new policy applies even to “Blue Basic” fares, which normally do not allow for any changes or cancellations.
California patient waited 'days' to be tested as residents protest plans to house patients in their neighbourhoods
Despite the urging of doctors, a coronavirus patient in California waited several days to be tested, likely becoming one of the first people in the US to be infected through community spread, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Officials said the patient may have been exposed to the virus by an infected person who travelled back into the US. But because of narrow federal guidelines for testing criteria, the patient waited several days for a positive diagnosis.
As health officials warn of impending infections through similar exposures, residents in one California community are protesting plans to move infected patients into a state-owned facility in Orange County. Residents in Alabama and near military bases housing quarantine zones also have protested officials' plans to house patients in their respective area.
It's a glimpse of the potential land battle ahead as communities become gripped by discrimination and fear in the wake of rising rates of the virus.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted sharply on Thursday, marking one of the worst weeks on Wall Street since the financial crisis.
It dropped more than 800 points as analysts warned that the spread of the coronavirus into the US has stoked investor worries.
The latest drop follows Donald Trump's address to the US to calm fears about the market's recovery, pointing to his handling of the crisis and the appointment of Mike Pence to oversee the administration's response.
There's always a tweet.
After slamming Barack Obama for the former president's appointment of a "czar" to oversee his administration's response to Ebola, Donald Trump has put his VP Mike Pence in charge of coronavirus.
Pence, obviously, does not have a background in medicine, public health or infectious disease control.
As the number of new cases of coronavirus outside China eclipses the number of new cases in the country, the World Health Organisation told world leaders that "this is your window of opportunity".
At today's briefing, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom said: "If you act aggressively now, you can contain this virus. You can prevent people getting sick. You can save lives. So my advice to these countries is to move swiftly."
Dr Adhanom urged leaders to adopt a "comprehensive" approach to combatting the virus and to be ready to "detect cases early, to isolate patients, trace contacts, provide quality clinical care, prevent hospital outbreaks, and prevent community transmission".
He said: "Once again, this is not a time for fear. This is a time for taking action now to prevent infections and save lives now. ... Fear and panic doesn’t help. People can have concerns and rightly so. People can be worried and rightly so. The most important thing is to calm down and do the right things to fight this very dangerous virus."
US Department of Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar says there are at least 40 public health labs that can test for coronavirus specimens, though the number of the available facilities could double this week.
He told Congress that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tested more than 3,600 specimens as of today.
A new CDC test will be sent to 100 health labs beginning next week, he said.
In her weekly address, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she spoke with Vice President Mike Pence about his appointment to handle the administration's response to the coronavirus, pointing to his "slashing" of public health funding in Indiana, where he served as governor.
She said Donald Trump's "opaque and chaotic" response to the health crisis, including cutting $700m to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even after global warnings of an impending threat to the US, as well as Health Secretary Alex Azar's admission that the availability of a vaccine would require cooperation from the private sector.
"Really?" she said. "This would be a vaccine developed with taxpayer's dollars ... It should be available to everyone, not dependent on Big Pharma."
Her remarks follow a joint statement with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, calling on the allocation of emergency funds to address the outbreak.
The funding criteria would require new funds "not stolen from other accounts", with affordable vaccines, interest-free loans to small businesses impacted by the outbreak, and reimbursements to state and local governments assisting with federal response.
