The highest "Red Level 1" alert was issued in Texas' Harris County, where the US' fourth largest city of Houston is located, due to an uncontrolled spread of the novel Coronavirus.

On Friday, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo issued the red alert, the most serious level on the newly-launched Coronavirus threat scale. "Today, we find ourselves careening toward a catastrophic and unsustainable situation," she said in a news conference.