CDC: Coronavirus Very Likely to Hit the U.S.

There are no cases in Florida, yet, but health officials warned Tuesday that the spread of the novel coronavirus to the United States was inevitable, even as some experts said that it was no cause for panic in the Sunshine State, according to a news report posted on Florida Today.

"It's not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country any more but a question of when this will happen," Nancy Messonnier, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told a news conference Tuesday.

"Disruption to everyday life may be severe," she said, warning the American public needed to prepare for the possibility that the impact from the virus could be bad, with school closures, cancelled public events and workers forced to stay at home.

Coronavirus already has caused illness and death, and it has sustained person-to-person transmission. That's two of the three factors for a pandemic, Messonnier said.

The World Health Organization said Monday the term pandemic "did not fit the facts," but experts say it soon could.

As of Tuesday, 14 cases have been diagnosed in the United States, in addition to 39 cases among repatriated persons from high-risk settings, for a current total of 53 cases within the United States. 

The Florida Department of Health is "actively involved in enhanced surveillance for respiratory illness that may be COVID-19," state health officials said on FDOH's website. "Epidemiologists will follow up on any suspected cases that meet criteria for COVID-19 to arrange for testing when needed and monitor contacts of any confirmed cases, if they occur."