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The U.S. State Department decided not to take the CDC’s advice when they allowed 14 citizens who tested positive for the coronavirus to fly back home the the U.S.

These were Americans who were on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined for weeks in Japan. Initially, the US State Department promised that no one with the infection would be allowed to board planes, but when the infected passengers had no symptoms, the State Department said they could just be segregated on the plane in a plastic-lined enclosure. Something the CDC strongly disagreed against, saying that virus could still spread.

This decision made by the State Department would nearly double the number of known coronavirus cases in the country. A move that proves that the world is not ready for an unprecedented public health emergency.

More than 600 of the 3,700 passengers and crew members of the Diamond Princess have now tested positive for the virus and two older Japanese passengers have died.

The coronavirus (officially, SARS-CoV-2) is extremely contagious. Experts estimate that without protective measures, every infected person will spread it to an average of slightly more than two additional people. The disease has been fatal in roughly two out of 100 confirmed cases.

More than 75,000 people have been infected and more than 2,000 killed.

Written by Clarke Jones

Source: The Washington Post