WASHINGTON - The United States is extending screening for passengers on direct flights from Italy and South Korea, Vice-President Mike Pence, the White House’s coronavirus czar announced on Monday (March 2).

Within the next 12 hours, there will be “100 per cent screening” of all direct flights from all airports across Italy and across South Korea, Mr Pence said.

The White House also beefed up its Coronavirus Task Force with experts and reiterated that the risk to the American public remains low, as four more deaths in Washington State brought the total deaths there to six.

As of Monday evening there were 43 confirmed domestic cases in the US, plus 48 cases of individuals who have returned to the US from abroad, the Vice-President said. Of the domestic cases, 29 of the 43 are either in California or Washington State.

Worldwide, close to 3,100 people have succumbed to the illness with more than 90,000 confirmed cases as of Monday.

Seventeen of the domestic cases are travel-related in one way or another, and 26 are believed to be from person to person spread, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told journalists.

The immediate risk to Americans continues to be low, Mr Azar said – though the risk for people with exposure to cases can be high.

“The degree of risk has the potential to change quickly especially if we see the sustained spread of this disease around the world, which could qualify this disease as a pandemic” he warned.

“We all need to prepare for the potential need; prepare for the worst, (and) hope for the best,” he said.

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“In some places we will have to use the range of our mitigation efforts - some of the best practices from our pandemic action plan as well as learnings from Singapore and Hong Kong around the most effective community mitigation efforts such as temporary school closures or even having school but perhaps not having assemblies in school.”

The task force on Monday met with governors of 50 states and territories, and with pharmaceutical company executives to discuss vaccine and therapeutics development, Mr Pence said.

“A vaccine may be going to clinical trials in six weeks, but might not be available until late this year or early next,” he said. “Therapeutics might be ready by summer or early fall.”

Pharmaceutical companies had formed a consortium to share information on on development of vaccines and therapeutics, he said.