Coronavirus: US will test people with flu symptoms, in expansion of government response

US health authorities on Friday said they are ready to institute “mitigation” measures to minimise the harm caused by transmission of the novel coronavirus even as they significantly expanded efforts to contain the outbreak from becoming widespread in the country.

In a telephone briefing with reporters, Nancy Messonnier of the Centres for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the US would begin to test individuals for the coronavirus if they have been identified by local health authorities as having flu-like symptoms.

The heightened measures – a major expansion of Washington’s effort to contain the outbreak – will see the CDC work with public health labs in Los Angeles and San Francisco in California; Seattle, Washington; Chicago, Illinois; and New York City. More sites are planned, she said.

Messonnier, the director of the CDC’s Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases, also addressed a rising debate among health officials and epidemiologists on whether to pivot from “containment” of the outbreak – through measures such as contact tracing and isolating those who come into contact with infected people – to mitigation strategies.

Those advocating for mitigation say that the latest data prove the virus has a high transmissibility that almost certainly dooms containment efforts. In a scenario where the virus reaches pandemic levels, a policy of mitigation would mean those with mild symptoms would be asked to seek outpatient medical treatment and rest at home.