Trump misidentifies first coronavirus fatality in U.S. as a woman
(about 2 hours later)
A person in Washington state died from the coronavirus, health officials said Saturday, becoming the first covid-19 casualty in the United States, as new cases provide fresh evidence that the virus is spreading.
A man in his 50s with underlying conditions on Saturday was reported as the first covid-19-related fatality in the United States.
The death was in King County, the Washington State Department of Health announced Saturday. It is unclear if the death in the Seattle area was the result of overseas travel or local transmission. Officials will hold a news conference later Saturday to provide more details.
Jeffrey S. Duchin, the chief health officer for Seattle and King County, Wash., said the death occured at EvergreenHealth hospital in Kirkland, Wash.
On Friday, California reported its second case of community transmission of the coronavirus, and Oregon and Washington announced others just hours later.
Earlier in the day, President Trump described the patient as a “wonderful woman” and a “medically high-risk patient,” at a news conference at the White House.
Authorities in Santa Clara County, Calif., said a 65-year-old woman had come down with the covid-19 disease without traveling to any countries hit hard by the outbreak or coming in contact with anyone known to have the infection.
Washington state officials had announced that a covid-19 death had occurred in King County, near Seattle. A news conference is scheduled for later today and the hospital in Kirkland, Wash. released a statement.
In Oregon, officials said a person from Washington County, in the northwest part of the state, had tested positive under similar circumstances. The positive test was conducted by the state’s laboratory and is considered “presumptive” until it is confirmed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The unnamed Oregon individual is an employee of Forest Hills Elementary School outside Portland but has a job that “does not typically come into contact with students,” the Lake Oswego School District wrote to parents in an email obtained by local news. The “few individuals” who did have close contact with the infected person were asked to stay home from work or school for two weeks.
The White House also announced new travel restrictions on Iran, South Korea and Italy. Trump’s administration said Saturday the existing travel ban on Iran would extend to foreign nationals who had been in the country the past 14 days. The State Department also ratcheted up its warning advising Americans not to travel to parts of Italy and South Korea affected by the virus.
The school will remain close through Wednesday as it is cleaned, the district told parents.
The first covid-19 patient to die in the United States came to EvergreenHealth in Kirkland, Wash., with “serious respiratory issues,” the hospital said in a statement Saturday, though it remains unclear when the patient was admitted, when the symptoms first appeared and how long it took health officials to test the person for the novel coronavirus. The identity of the patient was not released.
In Washington, state health officials said a high school student in Snohomish County, just north of Seattle, received a “presumptive” positive test in another case of unknown origin.
According to EvergreenHealth’s statement, the patient was tested for covid-19 per guidelines set forth by the CDC. The test came back positive, the hospital said. A second patient also tested positive and is in isolation receiving appropriate treatment.
The Jackson High School student was not in school most of this week, but was on campus briefly Friday morning, according to a statement from Everett Public Schools. Students who were in contact with the patient will remain home for 14 days while health authorities monitor their symptoms, and the school will close for three days, the school district said.
Trump said additional cases are likely in the United States but said the illness will be survivable for the vast majority who contract it. He called for calm and said he will meet at the White House on Monday with representatives of major drug companies about an accelerated vaccine.
The developments mean the virus is spreading in at least four separate communities — two of them about 90 miles apart in California, and two others farther up the West Coast. On Wednesday, authorities revealed the nation’s first case of community transmission, a woman in Solano County, Calif.
Vice President Pence said the risk to most Americans remains low.
There is no apparent connection between the new California patient and anyone else with the disease, including the Solano County case and two previous cases in Santa Clara County, said Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County health officer.
Pence and Trump addressed reporters in a hastily-called news conference at the White House. Trump assured Americans that “our country is prepared for any circumstance.”
“I think there’s a strong possibility that there’s local transmission going in California,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “In other words, the virus is spreading within California, and I think there’s a possibility other states are in the same boat — they just haven’t recognized that yet.”
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration expanded coronavirus testing by speeding up hospitals’ abilities to test, though some worried the changes fell short in reducing logistical burdens.
Two students in Palo Alto, a city of 67,000 in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, also may have been exposed to the virus, according to a letter to parents from the schools superintendent Friday.
Alarm has spread nationally since late Friday when health officials in Washington state, Oregon and California on Friday reported of new cases among people who have not traveled recently to countries hit hard by the outbreak or come into contact with anyone known to have the disease, which public health officials refer to as community transmission.
The children are from the same family. One is in high school and the other is in middle school.
Virus reported in wider region of the West Coast
The school system said that “as a precautionary measure, the district immediately took action and the two students were sent home and will be excluded from attending school until we receive more information.”
The four new cases announced Friday bring the total number of covid-19 cases detected through the U.S. public health system to 19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The virus that has been reported in 56 countries is now reaching into the heart of Silicon Valley, home to some of the world’s largest technology companies — including Google, Apple and Tesla — and San Jose, a city of 1 million people. Santa Clara County is home to 2 million residents.
Washington state announced late Friday that a high school student in Snohomish County, just north of Seattle, tested positive for the deadly virus and was in home isolation in a suspected community transmission case.
The three tech giants and other companies based in Santa Clara County did not respond to requests for comment on whether they are taking new precautions in response to the local case.
Earlier Friday, Oregon health officials reported a presumptive positive test in an elementary school employee with no known travel history or contact with infected individuals. California also reported a second case of community transmission, in Santa Clara County, after reporting the nation’s first such case, in Solano County, earlier in the week.
In a news release, Cody described the newly diagnosed Santa Clara County patient as “an older adult woman with chronic health conditions who was hospitalized for a respiratory illness.”
The Washington State Department of Health and health officials from Seattle and King County said they would offer more details on the first U.S. death related to coronavirus at a 1 p.m. local time (4 p.m. Eastern) news conference.
The virus is known to cause more severe illness in older people and those with underlying illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. But the symptoms are milder in more than 80 percent of current patients.
More coronavirus infections were additionally reported internationally from South Korea to France to Qatar on Saturday. Iran reported more than 200 new cases of the virus causing covid-19 — as well as nine deaths, adding to the highest death toll from the virus outside of China.
Cody said at a news conference that the woman came to a hospital complaining of difficulty breathing. A physician treating her notified the county health department Wednesday evening because the patient’s symptoms seemed compatible with covid-19. The doctor asked for a coronavirus test, which came back from the county’s lab Thursday evening, Cody said.
China reported its lowest manufacturing numbers on record for the month of February, as the epidemic-stricken economy ground to an unprecedented standstill.
Little else is known about the woman’s case, including her condition or how long she was in the community while infectious.
France banned gatherings of more than 5,000 people after the Health Ministry confirmed 19 new cases late Friday, a nearly 100 percent increase since the day before.
In Oregon, officials were trying to determine the number of close contacts the patient had, to help determine the potential spread of the disease.
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“Contact tracing is our top priority right now,” said Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen.
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The Oregon patient, whose age and gender were not disclosed, is at Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro, health officials said.
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In Washington, health officials said the student who tested positive was a minor and had visited Seattle Children’s North Clinic on Feb. 24. Officials said they were tracing people who may have been exposed to the patient.
“Given the extent of global spread, we expect to identify more individuals with covid-19 in Washington,” State Health Officer Dr. Kathy Lofy said in a statement.
To date, the virus — which originated in Wuhan, China — has sickened more than 84,000 people and has killed more than 2,800, mostly in China. Outbreaks in some places, such as South Korea, Iran and Italy, have been particularly severe.
Santa Clara health officials warned residents in a news release that “now is the time to prepare for the possibility of widespread community transmission.” The county will be conducting surveillance to determine how widely the disease has spread, she said.
“I understand this may be concerning to hear, but this is what we have been preparing for,” Cody said. “Now we need to start taking additional actions to slow down the spread of the disease.”
Public health measures, such as contact tracing, isolation and quarantine, have helped slow the spread, she said, but other public health measures are now needed.
“What we know now is the virus is here and present in some level,” she said. “But we still don’t know to what degree.”
On Tuesday, the CDC warned Americans to prepare for the inevitable spread of the virus in their communities. If transmission becomes more widespread, that could mean school closings, companies mandating telework and limits on or postponements of mass gatherings, said Nancy Messonnier, a top CDC official.
The CDC has also been under intense pressure to step up testing for the virus to determine how far the disease has spread. The agency promised Friday that it would be providing more test kits to states in coming days to allow for more rapid identification of infected people.
The discovery of two more cases “supports what we are trying to do with basic infection control and case identification,” said Saskia Popescu, senior infection prevention epidemiologist for Honor Health, a hospital system in Phoenix. “We need to focus on pragmatic and scientifically based measures and not hit the panic button. We know how to protect ourselves.”
Cody advised people to wash their hands and try not to touch their faces. Families should discuss supplies that might be needed if someone needs to stay home for a week or two. Schools should explore online learning, she said.
“I do understand the whole situation may feel overwhelming, and it’s difficult to think about the possible disruption in our everyday lives, especially when we are still uncertain about what this may look like,” she said. “But we do need everyone to start thinking about what actions they can take now so we can be prepared for the possibility of further spread of the virus in our community.”
Greene reported from Seattle. Christina Passariello and Heather Kelly in San Francisco and Derek Hawkins, Amy Goldstein, Meryl Kornfield and Ashley Parker in Washington contributed to this report.
