A vast majority of the cases are in China, where there have been 77,754 cases recorded so far. South Korea is second on the list, with nearly 1,000 cases.
The spike seems to have happened after a 61-year-old "super-spreader" infected 43 other members of a fringe religious group called the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Worshippers were forbidden to wear face masks, the New York Times reported.
More than half of South Korea's total infected patients are either members of the religious group or had contact with a church member.
The true number of infected people is probably higher than the official total. Academics from Imperial College London suggested in early February that only about one in 19 people infected with the virus were receiving a diagnosis.
More than 3,000 healthcare workers have been infected in China.
SARS killed 774 people and infected 8,098 between November 2002 and July 2003. The new coronavirus has killed more than three times that many people in eight weeks.
According to the CDC, a person could be at risk if they have:
CDC officials said the virus' incubation period — how much time passes between when a patient gets infected and when their coronavirus test comes back positive — is believed to be range from two to 14 days.
The risk in the US is still low, according to the CDC. However, Messonier said Americans should be prepared for the virus to spread in the US.
"The disruption of daily life might be severe," she added.
About 800 US citizens evacuated from Wuhan have been brought to some of these military bases and put under a mandatory two-week quarantine.
So far, about 400 of them have been released after testing negative for the virus.
"They have been watched more closely than anyone else in the United States at this point in time," Nancy Knight, director of the Division of Global Health Protection at the CDC, said in a briefing.
Currently, China and South Korea are both at Level 3, meaning the CDC recommends avoiding non-essential travel to those countries.
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