A top U.S. public health official confirms more than 40 Americans on the Diamond Princess cruise ship offshore Japan have coronavirus, while the remaining Americans without symptoms are currently being evacuated.

The big picture: COVID-19 has now killed at least 1,670 people and infected more than 69,000 others. Most cases and all but five of the deaths have occurred in mainland China. Taiwan confirmed its first death on Sunday, per multiple reports, in a 61-year-old man with underlying health conditions, although health officials were investigating how he became ill.

French Health Minister Agnès Buzyn confirmed on Saturday the death of a Chinese patient diagnosed with coronavirus in a Paris hospital, the first COVID-19 casualty outside of Asia.

The state of play: "I was informed last night of the death of an 80-year-old patient who was hospitalized ... since January 25 and who had a pulmonary infection from the coronavirus," Buzyn said.

Five public labs across the United States will work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to use its existing flu surveillance network to test individuals with flu-like symptoms for the novel coronavirus, the agency said Friday.

The big picture: The labs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and New York City will evaluate negative influenza tests for COVIS-19, in preparation for spread across the U.S. The agency plans to expand to more labs.

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Fear and misinformation surrounding the coronavirus have prompted unwarranted discrimination against Chinese-Americans who have nothing to do with the epidemic.

What they're saying: "We’re already worried about [stigma] here in the U.S. and around the world, that somebody coming back from this community or that community may be treated differently ... and businesses in a certain neighborhood may be boycotted," Anne Schuchat, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday.

The first chartered plane carrying 195 people from Wuhan, China to a military base in California is expected to release all passengers from quarantine on Tuesday after no visible symptoms of the novel coronavirus were detected, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The big picture: The State Department chartered five flights from Wuhan carrying about 800 people in total to be quarantined for 14 days. The 195 individuals were housed at the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif., as an "aggressive" but "preventative and precautionary step" to minimize the potential spread of the virus, CDC officials have said.

Many experts have questioned the FDA's drug approval standards over the past few years, as several controversial drugs have gotten the green light despite less rigorous testing.

What they're saying: Peter Stein, the head of the FDA's office that analyzes new drugs, sat down with Zachary Brennan of Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society and said the only thing that's changed with the FDA's approval process is a shift in the types of drugs the agency is reviewing.

China's plan to dominate the 21st century hangs in the balance as the deadly coronavirus outbreak spreads.

The big picture: Coronavirus is stress-testing Chinese President Xi Jinping's industrial and economic vision for the future as factories, supply chains and companies navigate the crisis.