After repeatedly declining assistance from international health officials, Chinese authorities agreed on Tuesday to permit teams of experts coordinated by the World Health Organization to visit China to help contain the growing coronavirus outbreak.
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The news arrived as federal health officials announced expanded screening measures for passengers from China at 20 ports of entry to the United States.
Other travel restrictions have not been ruled out, officials said, though so far only five people in the United States are known to have been infected. Americans are now discouraged from traveling to any part of China.
At a news briefing in Washington on Tuesday, Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services — who had just reiterated the offer of scientific and logistical assistance — said he was “delighted” that China was accepting.
The Chinese authorities agreed to work with experts from other countries after a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the W.H.O.
The W.H.O. praised China’s response to the outbreak, including its rapid identification of the virus and its “openness to sharing information with W.H.O. and other countries.”
Though the outbreak is continuing in China, federal officials maintained that the risk of infection remains low in the United States.
“Right now, there is no spread of this virus in our communities at home,” Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the news briefing.
“The coming days and weeks are likely to bring more cases, including the possibility of person-to-person spread,” he added. “Our goal is to contain this virus and prevent sustained spread of the virus in our country.”
The C.D.C. has already been screening arrivals from Wuhan, China — epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak — for symptoms of infection at five airports.
But the agency also
oversees a comprehensive quarantine system, including permanent quarantine stations at 20 airports and land border crossings that are staffed with medical officers who routinely screen ill passengers and decide whether they can enter the United States.
Those stations will be equipped and staffed to perform screenings specifically for the Wuhan coronavirus, officials said at the briefing.
“Americans should know this is a potentially very serious public health threat, but at this point Americans should not worry for their own safety,” Mr. Azar said. “This is a very fast-moving, constantly changing situation.”
American scientists are eager to review data that Chinese health officials have said indicates the virus may be transmitted from an infected individual to other people even before the patient shows symptoms.
So far, the C.D.C. has not been able to confirm that transmissions may occur while patients are asymptomatic, Dr. Redfield said.
It’s a question that could have implications for the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, and affect screening measures and other public health steps that must be taken, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Asymptomatic transmission is not believed to be a large factor in viral outbreaks. “The driver of an outbreak has always been a symptomatic person,” Dr. Fauci said. “An epidemic is not driven by asymptomatic carriers.”
There was no evidence that people were contagious before they showed symptoms during outbreaks of other coronavirus diseases, like SARS and MERS, which might suggest that such transmission is unlikely with the new coronavirus.
Dr. Redfield said the C.D.C. could not rule out additional measures as scientists learned more about the new coronavirus.
“All options have to be on the table, including travel restrictions,” he said. “But diseases are not terribly good at respecting borders.”
