CNBC: Top CDC official says U.S. should prepare for coronavirus ‘to take a foothold’
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday it is preparing for the new coronavirus, which has killed at least 1,115 and sickened more than 45,000 worldwide, to ‘take a foothold in the U.S.’ ‘At some point, we are likely to see community spread in the U.S. or in other countries,’ Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on a conference call. ‘This will trigger a change in our response strategy.’ Health officials had confirmed 13 U.S. cases of the virus, now named COVID-19, short for Corona Virus Disease…” (Lovelace, 2/12).

STAT: CDC director: More person-to-person coronavirus infections in U.S. likely, but containment still possible
“Health officials believe there is still opportunity to prevent widespread transmission of the coronavirus in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday, even as he warned that more human-to-human transmission here is likely. ‘We’re still going to see new cases. We’re probably going to see human-to-human transmission within the United States,’ Dr. Robert Redfield said in an interview with STAT. He added that ‘at some point in time it is highly probable that we’ll have to transition to mitigation’ as a public health strategy, using ‘social distancing measures’ — for example, closure of certain public facilities — and other techniques to try to limit the number of people who become infected…” (Branswell, 2/12).