Coronavirus: six dead in Washington state as new cases reported across US
- About 75 confirmed cases in US
- Outbreak at nursing home near Seattle linked to four deaths
- Global death toll passes 3,000 – live updates
Medics outside the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, on 1 March. Photograph: David Ryder/Reuters
Washington state has seen six deaths from coronavirus, local health officials said Monday, as new cases were reported across the US.
There are now about 75 confirmed cases in the US.
An outbreak at a nursing home near Seattle was linked to four of the deaths. The fifth person to die was a man in his 50s and the sixth was a man in his 40s.
Seattle is located in King county, and its executive, Dow Constantine, said he has ordered the purchase of a motel in the area to be used to isolate patients in treatment and in recovery. The county also plans to put “modular units” on public properties around the county.
Washington state’s coronavirus testing lab is testing hundreds of people a day, officials said, and it hopes to increase that rate to thousands soon.
At least 48 schools in the state are closed for cleaning amid attempts to stop the spread of the illness, CNN reported.
Testing has increased substantially in the US in recent days after the Centers for Disease Control, the federal health protection agency, expanded guidelines about who should be tested and also modified a flaw in its testing kits.
At a press conference on Monday, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, said there was “no doubt” more cases would be identified as the city aims to test 1,000 people a day starting in the next week.
But there was no need to panic, he said.
“In this situation, the facts defeat fear because the reality is reassuring,” Cuomo said. “It is deep breath time. This is not our first rodeo with this type of situation in New York.”
New York’s first case was identified in a woman in her 30s who caught the virus during a trip to Iran and is now in home quarantine. Cuomo said the woman’s husband, also a healthcare worker, was being tested and is assumed to have the coronavirus. They have both been following the recommended protocols and are self-quarantined at home.
“They took all precautions necessary,” Cuomo said.
Florida has also declared a public health emergency as it confirmed its first two cases.
Globally there have been more than 87,000 cases and nearly 3,000 deaths in 60 countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The coronavirus, which emerged in China late last year, has sent global markets falling as it quickly moves around the world. It appears poised for a spike in the US, in part because of more testing to confirm cases.
Trump administration officials worked on Sunday to calm fears that a global recession is looming, arguing that the public and media were overreacting and saying stocks would bounce back because the US economy was fundamentally strong.
Stock markets plunged last week, with an index of global stocks setting its largest weekly fall since the 2008 financial crisis, and more than $5tn wiped off the value of stocks worldwide.
A key energy conference in Houston that brings together oil ministers and energy firms was canceled on Sunday with organizers noting border health checks were becoming more restrictive and companies had begun barring non-essential travel. A world economy conference with Pope Francis due to take place in Italy later this month was also canceled.
Trump said on Sunday travellers to the US from countries at high risk of coronavirus would be screened before boarding and on arrival, without specifying which countries.
Delta Air Lines said it was suspending until May flights to Milan in northern Italy, where most of that country’s coronavirus cases have been reported. Flights will continue to Rome. American Airlines announced a similar move.
The US has 75,000 test kits for coronavirus and will expand that number “radically” in coming weeks, Alex Azar, the health secretary, told ABC.
Mike Pence, appointed last week to run the White House’s coronavirus response, said the government had contracted 3M Co to produce an extra 35m respiratory masks a month. The vice-president urged Americans not to buy the masks, which he said were only needed by healthcare workers.
He also told Fox News clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine would start in six weeks but a vaccine would likely not be available this season.
Democrats, who will challenge Trump for the presidency in November, have criticized his administration for downplaying the crisis and not preparing for the disease to spread in the US.
Pence said Americans should brace for more cases but that the “vast majority” of those who contracted the disease would recover.
“Other than in areas where there are individuals that have been infected with the coronavirus, people need to understand that for the average American, the risk does remain low. We’re ready,” Pence told NBC.
Pence also repeatedly refused to condemn a remark last week by the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, who said: “For [Democrats] to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump’s streak of winning is a new level of sickness.”
Pence told NBC: “When you see voices on our side pushing back on outrageous and irresponsible rhetoric on the other side, I think that’s important, and I think it’s justified.”
On Monday, Trump accused Democrats of “fearmongering” over the outbreak.