San Francisco Declared State of Emergency Citing Rapidly Spreading Coronavirus

California’s city of San Francisco has declared a state emergency over the fatal coronavirus. The move arrives after health officials notified the spread of coronavirus across the US remains unavoidable. London Breed, a Mayor of San Francisco, has announced the state of emergency on Tuesday in a statement. The executive noted the global image encircling the Wuhan-originated coronavirus has had changed rapidly. Breed added, thus it is essential for the city to accelerate readiness. She continued they are looking at the virus, which continues to spread in new regions across the globe every day. Breed noted thus they are taking necessary measures to safeguard the city from damage.

Until now, no cases of coronavirus have emerged in San Francisco. But, currently, the novel strain of coronavirus has affected more than 80,000 people worldwide. Notably, most of the diagnosed cases remain in China. Apart from this, the lethal March of the virus has resulted in the death of over 2,700 people. The announcement from mayor arrives as CDC officials advised the virus is spreading nationwide is beyond the scope of “if, but when”. Nancy Messonnier, the director of CDC’s NCIRD, said as a growing number of nations experience community spread, successful control at borders is becoming more challenging. Messonnier added the matter does not concern if it will happen, but it affects when it will take place, and how many people will have serious diseases.

The executive also cautioned that interruption to day to day life might be serious as the illness continues to extend. Health executives noted they want people to begin thinking regarding various kinds of means they might notice if the virus starts to spread. The preventive measures may include school closures and boosting telework. Before this, the country has taken such steps amid the H1N1 flu epidemic in 2009. Well, San Francisco is not the first city to declare a state of emergency. Earlier this month, Santa Clara County has made the same announcement. The new declaration is in an immediate effect and will remain for seven days. After that, the board of supervisors will vote on 3rd March to decide whether to continue the warning or not.