Virus Update: US Warns Against All Travel To China

Reuters reports:

The United States warned Americans not to travel to China as the death toll from a new virus reached 213 on Friday and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency, and Britain confirmed its first two cases.

“Do not travel to China due to novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan,” the U.S. State Department said in a new travel advisory on its website, raising the warning for China to the same level as Afghanistan and Iraq.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament his government had decided to raise its infectious disease advisory level for China, urging citizens to avoid non-urgent trips.

The Telegraph reports:

Two people in England have tested positive for coronavirus, in the UK’s first confirmed cases of the deadly disease. It is understood the patients are in Newcastle, where the NHS has one of its four centres designated to treat the condition.

In a statement, England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said: “We can confirm that two patients in England, who are members of the same family, have tested positive for coronavirus. The patients are receiving specialist NHS care, and we are using tried and tested infection control procedures to prevent further spread of the virus.”