Former FDA Commissioner: Japan on the ‘Cusp’ of a Large Coronavirus Outbreak

Scramble to Track Cambodia Cruise Passengers After Coronavirus Case Reported

SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia—Health authorities scrambled on Feb. 17 to track hundreds of passengers who disembarked from a cruise ship in Cambodia last week after a woman tested positive for coronavirus, heightening fears about the spread of the disease around the world. The new case raises questions about how companies and countries should handle monitoring and quarantine for people who may have been exposed to the new virus, since the American woman from the Westerdam cruise ship had passed the usually presumed incubation period of 14 days. Holland America Line, which is owned by cruise giant Carnival Corp., said it is working with governments and health experts to track passengers. “Guests who have already returned home will be contacted by their local health department and be provided further information,” the company said…

The former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Agency warned on Tuesday that Japan is facing a large outbreak of the new coronavirus.

Japan reported 88 new cases—including 65 patients who weren’t showing symptoms—from the cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama earlier Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases from the ship to 542. Officials have also confirmed at least 74 other cases domestically, mostly among patients who haven’t been to China recently.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Agency (FDA), said that Japan appears to be “on the cusp of a large outbreak.”

There might be “epidemic growth” in Japan, he said during an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “We need to watch that very closely.”

Japan has had a doubling of cases in the last four days, Gottlieb said.

Former FDA Commissioner: Japan on the ‘Cusp’ of a Large Coronavirus Outbreak

“If you start to see this become epidemic in other nations or have other nations experiencing large outbreaks that’s going to be extremely worrisome that we’re not going to control this globally,” Gottlieb said. He added on Twitter that Singapore “appears to be containing its outbreak, showing its possible.” Japan, though, “may be showing some signs of losing control over its spread.”

Singapore has the third-highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases behind China and Japan.

Japanese authorities said that the virus is now being transmitted locally and have advised people to not gather in crowds or attend any nonessential events, the Japan Times reported.

“We are seeing an increase of cases in which the route of transmission is not immediately known,” Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said at a press conference on Tuesday. “We must take measures by considering the possibility of it spreading to a certain degree.”

World Health Organization officials have sought to downplay fears over the new virus, explaining on Monday why they’re not classifying it yet as a pandemic. But some top public health officials said the new virus outbreak is a serious concern on the brink of becoming a pandemic.

Unless containment is more successful than it is right now, then a pandemic will happen “reasonably soon,” Dr. Tony Fauci, a top official at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, said during a recent appearance on CBS. Several countries “are starting to get to the second and third transmission,” he added.

French Health Minister Olivier Veran told France Info radio Tuesday morning that there’s a “working assumption and a credible risk” that the new COVID-19 virus could become a global pandemic, Reuters reported. At a press conference later Tuesday, he added: “We’re ready to face a possible epidemic. We’re ready to face any coronavirus situation, and we are continuing to prepare in case the situation evolves.”

An epidemic is an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in a population in a certain area, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Epidemics can result from a recent increase in amount or virulence of the agent, the recent introduction of the agent into a setting where it hasn’t been before, or a change in the susceptibility of the host response to the agent.

An outbreak carries the same definition but is often used for a more limited geographic area. Pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.

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University Tells Professors to Stop Sending Students for Coronavirus Tests Over Coughing

After receiving complaints, the University of Florida (UF) has told its faculty members that they should not exclude students who may be visibly sick from class due to fears of the new coronavirus. There has been no confirmed case of the coronavirus, called COVID-19, on the UF campus that hosts some 6,000 international students, but at least one professor reportedly asked coughing and sniffing students to leave class and be tested for the virus, reflecting anxieties about the disease’s spread amid Florida’s flu season. “We are aware that some instructors have asked students who are showing visible cold- or flu-like symptoms to leave class and return with a letter from the Student Health Care Center confirming that they do not have coronavirus,” the school’s provost, Joseph Glover, wrote to deans…