"The Senate Health Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will host a briefing tomorrow for all senators with top administration health officials regarding the novel coronavirus outbreak that was first detected in Wuhan, China", Alexander said via Twitter on Thursday. "The novel coronavirus is an emerging public health threat. Senators will have the opportunity to hear directly from senior government health officials regarding what we know about the virus so far, and how our country is prepared to respond as the situation develops".
Earlier in the day, the Chinese National Health Commission reported 830 cases and 25 deaths resulting from the new respiratory infection that was first registered in the Chinese city of Wuhan and labelled 2019-nCoV or Novel Coronavirus by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Concerns over the virus have increased worldwide, as cases of the Wuhan coronavirus have already been registered in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, and the United States.
The Wuhan virus belongs to the same family of coronaviruses that caused SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) that also originated in China in 2002 and resulted in the deaths of about 800 people all over the globe.
