U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (fourth from left) on March 4 holds a regular news conference at the White House with a task force on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). From left are Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, the State Department's Global AIDS Coordinator Deborah Birx, Vice President Pence, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield. (Yonhap News)
By Kang Gahui and Lee Jihae
The coronavirus response director of the U.S. government on March 4 said, "Reassuringly, in South Korea, no one has died (of the novel coronavirus disease) under 30. This is reassuring to us."
Deborah Birx, also an ambassador-at-large and the global AIDS coordinator for the U.S. State Department, told a regular news conference of the White House task force for the epidemic that Washington received information from Korea and Italy on the disease. "It's as we thought: The elderly and preexisting conditions have a more serious illness when confronted with the coronavirus," she said.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a regular news conference that same day, "And as I said in my last press briefing, we're helping other countries keep their people safe, too. For instance, we're working with Italy and South Korea – two countries that have been hit especially hard – to create effective exit screenings for passengers coming to the United States."
Earlier on March 2, he tweeted, "We're confident in Italy and South Korea's efforts to combat the COVID-19 outbreak."
kgh89@korea.kr