March 4 coronavirus news

There are 130 cases of the novel coronavirus, including nine deaths, in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as state and local governments. 

According to the CDC, there are 48 cases from repatriated citizens. According to CNN Health’s tally of US cases that are detected and tested in the United States, there are 82 cases in 13 states. Bringing the total of coronavirus cases to 130.

This includes presumptive positive cases that tested positive in a public health lab and are pending confirmation from the CDC, and confirmed cases have received positive results from the CDC.

Here's a state-by-state breakdown of the US cases:

Delta Airlines has announced that it will scale back their flights to Japan in response to “reduced demand due to COVID-19 (coronavirus),” a statement from the company said.

The company says it will reduce its weekly flying schedule to Japan through April 30 and suspend summer seasonal service between Seattle and Osaka for 2020, according to the statement.

This announcement is the latest in a series of schedule changes for the carrier. Delta previously announced it will suspend its US flights to Milan and temporarily reduce the number of weekly flights it operates between the US and Seoul-Incheon. Both moves were in response to coronavirus-related developments.

Congressional negotiators, along with the White House, are still trying to hammer out the final details of a multi-billion dollar spending package to deal with the coronavirus, according to sources involved in the talks.

The final sticking point — over how to make vaccines more affordable — is still being negotiated this morning.

If the bill is released soon, it’s possible the House could vote on the package as soon as today, according to sources. If not, it could slip to tomorrow.

United Airlines has suspended change fees for tickets purchased during the rest of March.

United passengers who want to cancel a flight will not get a refund but they will be able to retain the value of the ticket to be applied to a new ticket without fee for travel up to 12 months.

United has not suspended the fees for tickets purchased before Tuesday, even if the travel has yet to take place.

United collected $167 million in change fee revenue in the third quarter of last year and $635 million in those fees in the 12 months ending in September.

But passenger uncertainty about travel has prompted major US airlines to suspend their change fees. JetBlue was the first to announce a suspension of the fee last week, and American suspended the fee on Sunday. Delta suspended the fees for international travel on Monday evening.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says the novel coronavirus is deadlier than seasonal flu strains. No one has built up immunity to the new virus, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

He put the death rate for Covid-19 -- the disease caused by the coronavirus -- at around 3.4%, but experts urged caution around this figure.

Ghebreyesus said in a news conference on Tuesday:

The new figure for the coronavirus is higher than the 2% mortality rate previously reported, but many experts say it remains variable.

Mark Woolhouse, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, said in a written statement on Tuesday that a significant number of mild cases could have been missed.

John Edmunds, professor in the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said in a written statement released by the Science Media Centre that “it is surprisingly difficult” to calculate the mortality rate during an active epidemic. 

This is because “the time between onset of disease and death is quite long,” he said, so the number of deaths should be divided by the number of cases there were two or three weeks earlier.

Wall Street’s wild week continues, with stocks surging following Joe Biden's big Super Tuesday wins.

Here's how the US stock market opened today:

What is going on here: Biden is viewed by investors as potentially being a more market-friendly Democratic presidential candidate than Bernie Sanders. Health care stocks in particular were soaring.

Coronavirus worries haven't completely gone away though. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was back below 1%, one day after the Federal Reserve announced a surprise half-point rate cut.

As the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services was investigating the state’s second presumed-positive case of coronavirus, they learned that the state’s first patient violated their self-isolation order, a statement from the agency said.

The state’s second patient, an adult male from Grafton County, also had close contact with the first patient, the agency said in the statement.

New Hampshire's Department of Health and Human Services didn't provide additional details or say exactly where the second patient came into contact with the first patient.

Both individuals are now isolated at home and the state’s health department is contacting everyone “who had close contact with the person during the event and notifying them to follow the recommended 14-day self-isolation,” the statement adds.

The first patient is a person who had recently traveled to Italy and is an employee of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

New York now has six confirmed coronavirus cases, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today. 

They are:

The husband of the healthcare worker who traveled from Iran tested negative, Cuomo said. 

Several tests across the state also came back negative including from Buffalo where families were being monitored after Italy travel.

As airline CEOs prepare to meet today with Vice President Mike Pence about the coronavirus, they’re making an offer to the government, which wants them to collect and hand over more detailed contact information on international travelers.  

Airlines for America, a major industry association, said it is “offering to pay for the implementation of a website and mobile app” where travelers can submit contact information.  

CNN previously reported the government is asking that airlines collect contact information that would help health officials follow up with potential carriers of the coronavirus, or fellow travelers who may have come into contact with an infected person. The request is complicated for the travel industry, involving changes to airline and third-party vendor computer systems, including the popular travel search engine websites where many travelers buy tickets.   

The government has asked airlines to begin collecting and submitting each passenger’s “address while in the United States,” email address, and both a primary and secondary phone number, as well as other information it already collects.  

Airlines for America said it is “hopeful that the US government will move forward with more effective contact tracing.”