Yeah but the time taken for it to reach Maersk levels of congestion has been a while.  

From Washington Post:

 

First U.S coronavirus case of unknown origin confirmed in Northern California

 

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been informed of the first case of the coronavirus in a person who did not recently return from a foreign country or have contact with a confirmed case, according to a person briefed on the case, a sign the virus may be spreading in a local area.

 

Officials have begun tracing the contacts of the resident to find out how the person may have been infected and who else might have been exposed.

There was a question asked in Trump's press conference as to why the US CDC had only conducted <500 tests in the US vs many thousands of tests conducted elsewhere in the world, the President deflected by stating that the assembled experts were doing the very best, and to ask them about that once he'd finished speaking.  Once he finished speaking, of course they filed out of the room without facing any questions. 

gehenna:

 

Another problem of a monolithic organisation being taken out of action as a single point of failure.  Just as China is a monolithic single point of global manufacturing failure. 

 

I shudder to think of the possible disruption - and it'll be very hard to get a grasp on what the true situation is.  There's just no way to switch supply to a non-chinese manufacturer of any raw material unless there's a prior global surplus production of that product, those non-chinese manufacturers will always give first priority to existing customers.  Split supply arrangements give a certain safety margin, but you're potentially still right up sh*t creek if all of your suppliers are in China - and I'd wager that's quite common as China has sold on price for the past 3 decades. If I think of the last commodity trading work I was doing, taking China out for more than a few weeks would have probably shut down the factories of most of our customers.  Then longer term, if China isn't back to business as close to normal very quickly, it'll take an awfully long time (most likely never) for customers to trust that source of supply.

For local manufacturers, they're probably not going to want to be immediately forthcoming about pending supply disruptions of what they produce using Chinese sourced materials until they know things with some certainty.  It's not good for business to send their downstream customers to competitors who may or may not be in the same position.

Transit advice has changed: https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus 

Pandemic emergency plans of the 16 individual German province governments have been updated/prepared for immediate release.

So much for the US response.  The confirmed case in California which can't be traced as he didn't travel and didn't have contact with someone infected was in UC Davis hospital for a week, with specialists who'd already dealt with Covid-19 pleading for him to be tested:

 

"Upon admission, our team asked public health officials if this case could be COVID-19. We requested COVID-19 testing by the CDC, since neither Sacramento County nor (the California Department of Public Health) is doing testing for coronavirus at this time. Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered,” said the email, which added that, "UC Davis Health does not control the testing process".

 

https://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/newly-diagnosed-coronavirus-patient-being-treated-at-uc-davis-medical-center/

This information was known before Trump's press conference - where he insisted that there had been no community transmission within the US. 

They have deliberately not been testing - it's inconceivable that they'd only have cause to run <500 tests in a month, there are plenty of other diseases turning up at hospitals and clinics which could be mistaken for Covid-19 based on clinical signs, but they did not want to test them in case they got positive tests as has now happened. 

And that's what happens when a corrupt administration fires experts who do not vow full allegiance to their masters.

Waiting for more news on this - as he didn't contract Covid-19 out of thin air, so it is now a community spread disease in the US even if n=1, and unless they ramp up contact tracing including testing to do what they should have been doing weeks ago - then it's going to get out of hand in the US very quickly.

Tinkerisk:

 

Pandemic emergency plans of the 16 individual German province governments have been updated/prepared for immediate release.

 

Yes - it's now a community spread epidemic (not traceable to point of infection) in Iran, Italy, Korea, Germany, Japan, and the USA. 

New countries reporting infections are: Algeria, Austria, Croatia, Romania, Norway, Greece, Brazil and Switzerland.  47 countries now have confirmed cases.

kingdragonfly:

Those with poor insurance have a financial disincentive to seek medical help — which will only worsen the crisis

...

Well even if your private insurance plan would cover the astronomical costs of a few weeks in ICU in the USA,  there won't be enough beds available.

The US system will absolutely worsen the crisis there.  The Johns Hopkins study cited by the POTUS showing the US as being very well prepared for pandemic response does not take that into account.  Human nature - facing a hospital bill that will bankrupt you, people will hold off seeking help until they're almost dead, meanwhile for the previous month they'll have been leaking virus all over the place.
Then there's the casualised workforce with no sick-leave entitlement and living day to day with no cash reserves, coughing over the salad buffet at fast food joints and hanging around the water cooler in the office.

Had a consult with my surgeon today for a operation in May. He said if the virus arrives in NZ and the hospital gets really busy, to be prepared for elective surgerys like mine to be postponed for 6 months to a year.

Slovakian PM is in hospital with fever and lung infection a week after a EU council meeting. Combined with the Iranian health minister going down with it going to be interesting to see the impact on the middle east and EU political class

Beccara:

 

Slovakian PM is in hospital with fever and lung infection a week after a EU council meeting. Combined with the Iranian health minister going down with it going to be interesting to see the impact on the middle east and EU political class

 

Apparently the Pope isn't very well with a "cold", and the former Iranian ambassador to the Vatican has died from Covid-19.  This is just coincidence - the Iranian was ambassador years ago.  

Easter is coming up:

 

The Church of England has urged congregations to incorporate “simple precautions” at services to reduce the risk of infection from coronavirus.

 

In new guidance issued on Thursday, the church said current Government advice did not suggest that the sharing of a “common cup” during Holy Communion services should be suspended.

 

Long-standing government advice has been that ‘In a pandemic, it makes good sense to take precautions to limit the spread of disease by not sharing common vessels for food and drink.’ COVID-19 has NOT been declared a pandemic,” the guidance published on the church website said.

 

Churches really make me shake my head.

Fred99:

 

 

The Church of England has urged congregations to incorporate “simple precautions” at services to reduce the risk of infection from coronavirus.

 

In new guidance issued on Thursday, the church said current Government advice did not suggest that the sharing of a “common cup” during Holy Communion services should be suspended.

 

Long-standing government advice has been that ‘In a pandemic, it makes good sense to take precautions to limit the spread of disease by not sharing common vessels for food and drink.’ COVID-19 has NOT been declared a pandemic,” the guidance published on the church website said.

 

 

Churches really make me shake my head.

 

You would think they would just tell the congregations to pray harder.

frankv:

 

You would think they would just tell the congregations to pray harder.

 

I'm reasonably confident that'll be part of the US response now that Pence is running their epidemic response.
As viruses don't evolve - but are all creations of God (under his eye) - then prayer must surely be the best way to get rid of them.

Pence doesn't believe science - that doesn't bode well IMO.