There are “ongoing” conversations at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about expanding airport health screenings for the novel coronavirus given the rapid spread of the infection in Italy, South Korea and Japan, according to an agency spokesperson.

Currently, the United States is doing health screenings only for passengers who are flying in from China.

At the time that the CDC made the decision to start those screenings, there were far fewer cases of the coronavirus in China as there are currently in Japan, Italy or South Korea.

When the screening started on January 17, there were 45 cases of the new coronavirus in China. Japan currently has about three times that number of cases, Italy has about 10 times as many and South Korea has more than 25 times as many.