Source: CDC warns Americans to prepare for COVID-19 pandemic – UPI.com

A Chinese woman wears a protective face mask at a shopping center due to the threat of the spreading deadly coronavirus in Beijing. Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 25 (UPI) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday warned Americans to prepare for a coronavirus pandemic.

Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a press briefing that the “rapidly evolving and expanding” COVID-19 outbreak has now seen “community spread” in multiple countries, as well as cases in several regions without a known exposure to where the disease originated, Wuhan, China.

“These factors meet two of the three criteria for a pandemic,” Messonnier said. “The world appears to be moving closer to the third criteria — worldwide spread.”

The CDC and other federal agencies continue to take steps to slow the introduction of the virus into the United States to give officials time to prepare, she said. But as more countries report community spread of the disease, containment at U.S. borders becomes more difficult.

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CDC warns Americans to prepare for COVID-19 pandemic – UPI.com