FDA ‘Stands Ready’ To Fight Coronavirus Via Emergency-Use Test Kits While WHO Mulls Virus Spread, Gets Out Guidance

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stands poised to proceed with hastened approvals for 2019-coronavirus (nCoV) diagnostics, treatments and vaccines, if a public health emergency is declared, after an infected US traveler who caught the disease in Wuhan, China returned from the province to Washington State. Spread of the disease has reached a crisis level in China, and the World Health Organization met on 22 and 23 January to consider what actions to take to contain the virus, while issuing an interim laboratory test guidance for use in diagnosing the disease.