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For the U.S., it’s not if but when, federal officials say

The U.S. should prepare for community transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus, CDC officials said on Tuesday.

“We expect to see community spread [of COVID-19] in this country. It’s not a question of ‘if’ anymore,” said Nancy Messonnier, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, on a media call. Currently, the U.S. has 14 COVID-19 cases that are travel-associated or in close contacts of travelers, and 43 cases from citizens brought home from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and Wuhan, China. But she cited the “rapidly evolving and expanding” situation, including the explosion of sustained person-to-person community spread in a variety of countries, including South Korea, Italy, Iran, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore. As the world inches closer to worldwide spread, and the final criterion of a pandemic, Messonnier acknowledged the previous strategy of containing the disease at the borders may no longer be enough to stop it. The strategy would then shift from a containment strategy to mitigation, she said. In the vein of “when, not if” the U.S. will experience community spread, she advised people to ask whether their providers have telemedicine capability, and said parents should consider “what to do about childcare” if schools are closed. Messonnier outlined community mitigation guidelines, based on those outlined for pandemic influenza a decade ago. These non-pharmaceutical interventions include personal practices, including covering coughs and washing hands, as well as community and environmental measures such as surface cleaning. Community measures are the most dire, and include social distancing, or limiting contact in face-to-face settings, employing such options as closing schools, telework or teleschool for children, and recommending that cities potentially “modify, postpone, or cancel mass gatherings.” This included a special advisory for the healthcare system: triaging patients, conducting patient visits via telemedicine, and delaying elective surgeries. Obviously, this would be based on the outbreak’s severity and breadth, but CDC called on a variety of industries, including the healthcare, education, and business sectors, to start preparing now because when the virus hits the community, it hits quite rapidly. “The disruption to everyday life may be severe, but these are things we need to start thinking about right now,” Messonnier noted.She added that 12 state and local health departments currently have the diagnostic test for COVID-19, but the tests still come to CDC for confirmation. She anticipated commercial laboratories would be coming online with their own tests, as it becomes “more and more important clinicians have a full toolkit.” “We are working as fast as we can, and we understand the frustration of our partners within the healthcare sector,” Messonnier said. While the case definition of COVID-19 is still travel-associated, Messonnier said that may change based on information in other countries and when they had new information about case definitions, they would “publicize it broadly.”

She ended with the caveat that she’s not sure if community spread of COVID-19 will be mild or severe, but told a reporter it was better to be overprepared than underprepared.

“People are concerned about the situation. I would say rightfully so,” Messonnier said. “I’m concerned about the situation. CDC is concerned about the situation.”

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Trump claims coronavirus is ‘going to go away’ despite mounting concerns

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump on Tuesday predicted the coronavirus is “going to go away” despite warnings from Democrats that his White House is asleep amid cresting fears in Washington that the outbreak could spark a pandemic. The President maintained his sunny optimism about the virus that is showing signs of spreading around the world from its Chinese epicenter and is already having a huge impact on global commerce. “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away,” Trump said during a trip to India, expressing confidence that the epidemic will not seriously harm the global economy. But behind the scenes the President is less calm, and he is expressing frustration at some of the ways his administration is responding to the outbreak, sources familiar with the conversations told CNN. His mood reflects a growing realization among Trump’s staff that the coronavirus is going to pose a greater challenge than previously understood.

After weeks of telling Americans that China has a lid on the situation, the President will return from India amid growing concern in Washington over the virus and partisan criticism of his attitude.
A panicked 1,000-point Wall Street sell-off, a building world supply-chain crunch and a looming hit to global growth together could pose peril for Trump by slowing the strong economy he plans to ride to reelection. But even more worryingly, the virus is spreading to Europe and the Middle East in a way that has experts warning it could soon become a full-blown pandemic. In such a scenario, the US could not expect to escape from a wave of infections and Trump would face a test of his leadership and capacity to bring a jumpy nation together. Trump acknowledged Monday’s Wall Street plunge, but noted futures were higher ahead of Tuesday’s market open in the United States and he said that his administration was putting “a lot of talent, brainpower” behind tackling the virus.
The President ticked though administration efforts to contain the virus, claiming the US had “essentially closed the borders.” “We’re watching very carefully,” Trump said. “We’re fortunate so far and we think it’s going to remain that way.”
But Democrats are now sounding the alarm, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer charging Monday that the President is “asleep at the wheel” as the threat builds. A serious outbreak in the US could put a health system already facing a tough flu season under severe pressure, posing an organizational challenge for an administration that habitually stokes chaos and sends mixed messages.
Even if worst-case scenarios don’t come to pass, Trump’s so far blasé approach to the virus, assuring Americans that Chinese President Xi Jinping is on top of the epidemic, does not seem sustainable for much longer.
The President has also confidently predicted that warming spring weather could snuff out coronavirus, despite no evidence that is the case. Yet as disquiet mounted by the hour in Washington, Trump was still not showing much concern late Monday about a virus that has infected more than 80,000 people and killed at least 2,704 worldwide and has now popped up in South Korea, Iran, Italy, Afghanistan, Kuwait and elsewhere. During a visit to India, the President sent a tweet suggesting all was well, and predicted the stock market would bounce back.
“The coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” Trump tweeted. In a sign of increasing urgency, the administration gave senators a classified briefing on Tuesday morning about coronavirus contingency plans. Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the State Department took part. Lawmakers leaving the briefing Tuesday said that officials told them that a vaccine is at least one year to 18 months away.
“The vaccine for the Coronavirus is moving more rapidly than any vaccine we have already tried to approve — but it will take a year or 18 months,” said retiring Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Schumer had slammed Trump earlier Monday, saying the President was not taking the situation sufficiently seriously.
“All of the warning lights are flashing bright red. We are staring down a potential pandemic and the administration has no plan,” the New York Democrat warned.
“The Trump administration has been asleep at the wheel. President Trump, good morning, there is a pandemic of coronavirus. Where are you?”
After the administration’s funding request was unveiled, Schumer criticized it as “too little, too late.
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China’s car sales plunge 92% due to coronavirus

BEIJING — Retail sales of passenger cars in China crumbled 92% on an annual basis in the first 16 days of February, according to China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), as the coronavirus outbreak slammed the brakes on businesses across the country. China’s passenger vehicle sales recorded 4,909 units in the first 16 days, down from 59,930 vehicles in the same period a year earlier, data from CPCA showed, the first major figures to demonstrate just how hard the epidemic is hitting the world’s biggest auto market.

“Very few dealerships opened in the first weeks of February, and they have had very little customer traffic,” it said.

Mainland China recorded 889 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection on Thursday. The death toll also rose by 118 to 2,236, mostly in the Hubei provincial capital of Wuhan where the outbreak began, and which remains under virtual lockdown. China’s auto market is likely to see sales slide more than 10% in the first half of the year due to the coronavirus epidemic, and around 5% for the whole year, provided the epidemic is effectively contained before April, the country’s top auto industry body, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), told Reuters last week. To stabilize the market, where more than 25 million vehicles were sold last year, China’s commerce ministry said it will introduce more measures to boost auto consumption. Chinese automaker Geely has launched a service for customers to buy cars online and get them delivered directly to their homes, in a bid to drum up sales as the coronavirus outbreak prompts buyers to stay away from showrooms. Other carmakers like Tesla, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have also started to promote products heavily online in recent weeks as the health crisis escalated and authorities warned people to stay away from public places. Consumers can order and customize their cars on Geely’s website, it said in a statement. It will also offer test drives where potential consumers will be able to arrange a drive starting from their home address in coordination with local dealerships.

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Dow closes down 1,000 points as coronavirus fears slam Wall Street

All three major indices plummeted Monday as fears grew that the epidemic would begin to choke supply chains worldwide.

The challenge investors face is that no one knows how long this epidemic will last, or how dangerous it ultimately will be to populations. Wall Street was rocked in a volatile trading session on Monday that ended with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing down 1,031 points — the worst day in two years for the blue-chip index, as fears increased over the global economic shock of coronavirus.

The market selloff came amid a significant uptick in reported cases of the disease in Europe, pushing investors to ditch stocks and buy up safe haven assets such as gold, which hit a seven-year high. While the virus has already stalled the travel industry, shuttered factories in several countries, and slammed luxury goods retailers, casino operators, and tech companies, Monday’s market reaction represented concern that stricter methods to control the spread of the virus would further throttle supply chains. The disease has already choked Chinese production, bringing the world’s second-largest economy to a standstill. After the outbreak spread to parts of northern Italy, there was concern that Milan, the country’s financial epicenter, could also be hard hit. The Borsa Italiana, Italy’s stock exchange, slid by 6 percent, its worst day in almost four years. Monday’s selloff came as South Korea raised the country’s coronavirus alert to its highest level and Italy saw 130 new cases of the disease. While the World Health Organization stopped short of calling the outbreak a pandemic, it did note on Monday that the virus has “unlimited potential.” Scientists say the new virus, dubbed COVID-19, is both more easily transmitted and less deadly than the SARS epidemic, but much still remains unknown. As a result, Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said, “Markets are now slaves to the news flow.”

Investor reaction to the wider spread of coronavirus led to a volume of trading so heavy that some clients even had difficulty accessing their accounts, CNBC reported.

“Due to higher-than-usual volumes, some clients may have experienced delays in accessing some online features as the market opened but our systems are fine and up and running,” Schwab Public Relations told CNBC. Fidelity, the largest online broker, said, “Some clients are experiencing technical issues and we are working as quickly as possible to resolve.” The rate at which the virus was spreading in China appears to be slowing. An announcement of 409 new cases Monday was the fifth day in a row that the number of new daily cases had fallen below 1,000. Outside of China, though, a spate of outbreaks presented fresh cause for concern. “The spike in infections in South Korea, mostly concentrated in the congregation of a single church, a surge in cases in Italy, and news of an outbreak in Iran, where the health care system is of uncertain quality and the government is secretive, has triggered fears that China’s aggressive quarantining efforts won’t keep the virus from spreading globally,” Shepherdson wrote in a client note. “Global growth is likely to be impacted in a meaningful way due to fears of the coronavirus,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for the Independent Advisor Alliance, said The challenge investors face is that no one knows how long this epidemic will last, nor how dangerous it ultimately will be to populations. “Stock markets around the world are beginning to price in what bond markets have been telling us for weeks,” Zaccarelli said. “Bond yields have continued to move lower, despite the fact that stocks quickly shrugged off the coronavirus risks last month,” he said, adding that this indicated that the stock market’s initial resilience was unlikely to last. Nigel Green, CEO and founder of the deVere Group, predicted that markets could fall by as much as 10 percent — a possibility he said most investors are not yet pricing into valuations. “Many investors remain complacent about the far-reaching impact of coronavirus, which is continuing to spread — and a faster pace. This will inevitably hit financial markets,” he said. “In general terms, stocks have hardly been deterred by the coronavirus outbreak. This complacency is concerning.” Green added that the virus was emerging at a time when many key global economies were already vulnerable. “Coronavirus has struck at a time when major economies, including Japan, Germany, India and Hong Kong are facing a downturn due to other factors such as the U.S.-China trade dispute and political protesters, which could hit the world economy,” he said. “This threat to global growth is real and should not be ignored,” Zaccarelli said, but he added that — provided the United States stays out of recession — the virus impact will be unlikely to hurt the retirement goals of long-term investors. “We will move past this challenge, and the economic expansion will continue in 2020,” he said.