Washington state health officials have confirmed that a Seattle-area man in his 50s has died from coronavirus, in the first reported US death associated with the disease.
The patient, who was not immediately identified, was chronically ill and came to EvergreenHealth hospital in Kirkland with “serious respiratory issues”, officials said. He was tested for the disease on Thursday night.
The man had no history of travel to affected areas or contact with a known COVID-19 case, officials said.
As the man’s death was announced, there seemed to be confusion between state and federal authorities.
Washington governor Jay Inslee’s initial statement referred to the patient as a man but at a White House press conference, Donald Trump and other administration figures referred to the patient as a woman.
Trump called the person who died “a wonderful woman, a medically high-risk patient in her late 50s”.
Washington state officials announced two additional presumptive positive cases of novel coronavirus, both associated with LifeCare nursing facility in Kirkland.
A woman in her 40s, who worked at the center, was reported to be in “satisfactory condition” while a woman in her 70s who was a resident at the facility was reported in serious condition.
“We expect this infection will increase over time,” said Dr Jeff Duchin, health officer for public health, Seattle and King county, at a press conference. “We know we can’t stop it. It’s here and it’s going to be here with us in the US for quite a while. But we can reduce our risk. And our focus is on reducing both the risk to individuals getting sick but also the risk to our community as a whole.”
He recommended the public practice good hand washing, avoid touching their eyes, nose or face, and in general stay 6ft away from other people.
Governor Inslee declared a state of emergency in response to the new cases, saying state agencies should use “all resources necessary to prepare for and respond to the outbreak”.
Health officials currently are able to test for the disease at one facility in Washington state but are looking to expand to commercial laboratories in the near future in case the disease starts to spread more, said state health officer Dr Kathy Lofy.
“We’re able to keep up with all the specimens that are coming in at this point,” she said. “We’re working up to testing about 200 specimens a day. That is our plan.”
Officials have also requested help from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and expect to have 10 officials in Washington state by Sunday.
On Friday night, the Washington state Department of Health confirmed two additional cases of coronavirus, including a high school student in Mill Creek with no history of international travel and no known interactions with people infected with the disease.
He is in home isolation and his school will be closed Monday for three days of deep cleaning. The other individual was named as a woman in the Seattle area in her 50s who recently returned from a trip to Daegu, South Korea.
There have been two other confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US that have not been linked to international travel or contact with people diagnosed with the disease. Officials reported cases of an older woman in northern California with chronic health conditions and an employee at a school in Oregon.
There have been reports of 83,652 cases of coronavirus and nearly 2,800 deaths worldwide, according to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) situation report.
In January, Washington state reported the first case of coronavirus in the US when a man in his 30s was admitted to a hospital in Everett after returning from central China. He has since recovered.
In Seattle on Saturday, Dr Duchin said: “At this point we do not have widespread community-wide transmission locally. We have transmission that’s associated with an outbreak at this long-term care facility, so we’re going to be watching this situation very closely and we’re going to be providing guidance as we learn more.”
Dr Lofy said authorities were starting to see the virus spread and “the risk to the general public is increasing”.