Coronavirus live updates: Trump insists U.S. "very ready" as virus cases surge outside China

Mr. Trump said the risk to Americans remained very low, but his bid to ease nerves — and shore up jittery stock markets in an election year — came as officials confirmed the first case of suspected "community transmission" of the COVID-19 disease in the country: a patient in California with no recent travel history to coronavirus hotspots or known contact with infected people.The World Health Organization continues to say there's time to rein in the virus that emerged late last year in central China, and is declining to label it a global pandemic. But with cases in more than 40 countries, the WHO chief said it was "deeply concerning" to see the disease spreading fast outside China, most significantly in South Korea, Italy and Iran. With an American service member among those infected, the U.S. has postponed scheduled joint military drills with South Korea and urged Americans to avoid travel to the country.Italy, home to the biggest outbreak outside Asia and the source of smaller disease clusters in neighboring European countries, saw a 25% increase in cases on Wednesday. The virus has also gained a foothold in the Middle East, spreading to a growing number of countries from Iran, where there are widespread concerns the government is under-reporting the true scale of the outbreak.British health officials confirmed two new cases of the coronavirus in England on Thursday, bringing the United Kingdom's total to 15. He renewed the Olympic organizers' insistence, however, that the games or the torch relay might be canceled.Iran's state-run media quoted the health ministry on Thursday as saying the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country had jumped sharply to 245, with 26 having died of the disease.