A woman wears a face mask while purchasing bottles of rubbing alcohol at a Costco store in Alhambra, California on Feb 4, 2020. (FREDERIC J BROWN / AFP)

US health officials on Friday said they are preparing for the possibility of the spread of the new coronavirus through US communities that would force closures of schools and businesses.

If the virus begins to spread through US communities, health authorities want to be ready to adopt school and business closures like those undertaken in Asian countries to contain the disease, a health official said

The United States has yet to see community spread of the virus but health authorities are preparing medical personnel for the risk, Nancy Messonnier, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told reporters on a conference call.

In coming weeks, if the virus begins to spread through US communities, health authorities want to be ready to adopt school and business closures like those undertaken in Asian countries to contain the disease, Messonnier said.

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“We’re not seeing community spread here in the United States yet, but it’s very possible, even likely, that it may eventually happen,” Messonnier said.

“Our goal continues to be to slow the introduction of the virus into the US. This buys us more time to prepare communities for more cases and possibly sustained spread.”

The CDC is taking steps to ensure frontline US healthcare workers have supplies they need, she added, by working with businesses, hospitals, pharmacies and provisions manufacturers and distributors on what they can do to get ready.

The World Health Organization has warned that the window of opportunity to contain the international spread of the epidemic that has killed more than 2,200 people was closing, as the virus has spread to some 26 countries with a large cluster in South Korea and recent outbreaks in Iran, Lebanon and Italy.

“If we do well, we can avert any serious crisis, but if we squander the opportunity then we will have a serious problem on our hands,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva.

The United States currently has 13 cases of people diagnosed with the virus within the country and 21 cases among Americans repatriated on evacuation flights from Wuhan, China, and from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, CDC said.

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Of 329 Americans evacuated from the cruise ship, 18 tested positive for the virus. Eleven of them are at University of Nebraska Medical Center, five are in medical facilities near Travis Air Force Base in California and two are near Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

First death in Italy

In Italy, an elderly man in the northern city of Padua has died after being infected with the coronavirus, becoming the first Italian victim of the disease, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said on Friday.

Italian health authorities reported 15 cases of the virus in the wealthy northern region of Lombardy and two in neighbouring Veneto where Padua is located — the first known cases of local transmission in the country

Health authorities announced earlier in the day 15 cases of the virus in the wealthy northern region of Lombardy and two in neighbouring Veneto where Padua is located — the first known cases of local transmission in the country.

Local media said the dead man was a 78-year-old from the small town of Vo’ Euganeo who was hospitalised two weeks ago.

“Strict measures to create a health cordon around Vo’ Euganeo (have been put in place),” regional governor Luca Zaia wrote on Facebook.

In neighbouring Lombardy, the government banned all public events and closed schools in several small towns southeast of Italy’s financial capital Milan.

Local officials said the first infected patient in Lombardy, a 38-year-old man from the town of Lodi, fell ill after meeting a friend who had recently visited China.

That man has since tested negative for the disease, but doctors were investigating whether he carried the virus and subsequently recovered without showing any symptoms, said Lombardy regional councillor Giulio Gallera.

The pregnant wife of the initial patient and one of his friends were infected, along with three others admitted to hospital overnight suffering from pneumonia-like symptoms. Officials later said five health workers who had come into contact with the virus carriers had themselves fallen ill.