right now. health officials are on alert and desperately trying to keep the coronavirus from infecting anyone here in the bay area. several people in alameda county are being tested for this deadly virus. here s what we know at this hour. the cdc says this deadly virus originated in wuhan, china. so far there s been a confirmed case in seattle. there s also patients in texas and l.a. that are being monitored. worldwide, at least 25 people have died and more than 800 people have been infected. let s get to nbc bay area s cheryl hurd. we want to be clear. there are no confirmed cases in the bay area at this juncture. reporter: that s right. health officials want people to really know that. but hospitals like the one here in fremont are prepared, and theye ready just in case. health officials just want people to be informed. we are looking at no confirmed cases in the bay area. reporter: alameda county public health officer erica pan says there s no need to panic here
Sheer, whos our assistant secretary of defense for east asia in the pacific. You know that david was had come back from hanoi to do this job. He was our u. S. Ambassador there. David is an expert on china and Southeast Asia. I think for many of us who are sort of in the trenches every day on these issues, couldnt think of a better person for the pentagon to put into this role. Next to him is one of the top Southeast Asiaenists in the United States, and he also is singapores ambassador to the United States. Aspoke. He was most recently singapores ambassador to indonesia. He was in the past has been singapores ambassador also to australia. And to quaul la lumpur and has a long history in Singapore Foreign affairs working on asiarelated affairs. And finally, a good friend and a real hero of Southeast Asia and asian policy in the senate is chris bros. He works with senator mccain in senator mccains office. Previous before that he was senior staffer in the Senate Armed Services committee. A