Increasing alarm over the coronavirus’ relentless spread outside of China sparked another global sell-off in markets on Thursday, with new cases and deaths on the rise across the world — including within the United States.

As Italy, South Korea and Iran grapple with mounting casualties, the World Health Organization’s director called on all governments to “pull out all the stops” to beat back the virus. Globally, cases have exceeded 96,000, with more than 3,200 deaths reported.

More than 160 confirmed cases in over a dozen U.S. states have been reported, resulting in at least 11 deaths — the latest infections surfacing in New York and New Jersey. Meanwhile, California declared a state of emergency in the wake of its first death, with Florida and Washington State also raising the red flag.

Both chambers of Congress overwhelmingly passed an $8.3 billion supplement to fund its response to the coronavirus outbreak, sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk. Around $3 billion of that is earmarked for vaccine development, with a number of companies ramping up efforts to develop testing and treatment.

Howard Forman, a doctor and professor at the Yale School of Public Health, told Yahoo Finance the virus outbreak is novel, with data coming in in real-time.

That means “we don’t have a very good sense for simple things like lethality, its infectiousness and its current prevalence in the population,” he told “On the Move” on Thursday.

With people getting increasingly panicky, “it’s becoming harder and harder to reassure them when we see, every day, tens, if not dozens, of cases now coming out,” Forman added.

Coronavirus toll rises around the world More

Vice President Mike Pence, who’s heading up the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus, flew to 3M (MMM) headquarters Thursday to meet the maker of the highly sought-after N95 face masks. The company was asked by the administration to produce 35 million more masks per month to meet growing demand.

Meanwhile, companies like Gilead Sciences (GILD), Quest Diagnostics (DGX) and Labcorp (LH) are pushing to accelerate the timetable for new testing and treatment methods.

Gilead is rolling out its clinical trials globally, with more sites to be announced soon.

Quest announced on Thursday it will be ready to test samples sent to its California lab by March 9 — with more locations rolling out the capability soon, while Labcorp announced its test was ready for physicians to order Thursday evening.

The announcements could help the administration meet its goal of 1 million tests available by the weekend, as Pence acknowledged on Thursday that the world’s largest economy doesn’t have enough tests to meet demand.

In a press briefing after meeting with Congress Thursday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, flanked by top health officials, said the goal of 1 million tests (or individual samples) would equate to about 400,000 people.

At an event hosted by lobbying group PhRMA Wednesday, Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day said there is still no indication of the cost of the antiviral treatment, remdesivir, but it has taken 10 years and billions of dollars to produce.

“It’s very difficult to talk about pricing until you know what value this medicine may, or may not, bring to patients and societies,” he said.

‘Expectation of a severe disruption’ as testing questions mount

Markets tumbled on Thursday, with conferences and large public events being sharply curtailed, or cancelled altogether. Analysts are becoming more pessimistic about the prospects for growth this year, as China remains hampered by the virus — even amid falling infection rates — and the U.S. at the tip of the iceberg.

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