|
 The first California death from the virus was an elderly person in
Placer County, near Sacramento, health officials said. The person
had underlying health problems and likely had been exposed on a
cruise ship voyage between San Francisco and Mexico last month.
It was the first coronavirus fatality in the United States outside
of Washington state, where 10 people have died in a cluster of at
least 39 infections that have emerged through community transmission
of the virus in two Seattle-area counties.
Although the Placer County patient who died was not believed to have
contracted the virus locally, that case and a previous one from the
San Francisco Bay Area linked to the same ocean liner have led
health authorities to seek other cruise passengers who may have had
close contact with those two individuals.
Hours after the person's death was announced, California Governor
Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency in response to the
coronavirus, which he said has resulted in 53 cases across the
nation's most populous state.
"The State of California is deploying every level of government to
help identify cases and slow the spread of this coronavirus," Newsom
said in a statement.
Newsom said the cruise ship, named the Grand Princess, had later
sailed on to Hawaii and was returning to San Francisco, but would
not be allowed into port until passengers had been tested for the
virus.
"We are holding that ship off the coast," Newsom said.
Six new coronavirus patients were confirmed in Los Angeles County,
public health officials said on Wednesday. One was a federal
contractor who may have been exposed while conducting medical
screenings at Los Angeles International Airport, the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security reported.
Three others likely were infected while traveling recently to
northern Italy, one of the areas hardest hit in the global outbreak.
Of the six in Los Angeles County, only one has been hospitalized.
The other five are recovering in home isolation.
The greater Seattle region represents the biggest concentration of
cases detected in the United States from a virus that has killed
more than 3,000 people worldwide, mostly in China, where the
epidemic originated in December.
With most of the Seattle-area cases not linked to travel or exposure
to people who might have been infected abroad, that means the virus
has gone from being an imported phenomenon to taking up residence in
Washington state, health officials say.
At least 18 cases, including six deaths, were connected to a
long-term nursing facility for the elderly, called LifeCare Center
of Kirkland, in a Seattle suburb.
'DISTANCING MEASURES'
Seattle health authorities urged a number of measures for curbing
further spread of the disease, including recommendations for anyone
aged 60 and older and individuals with underlying chronic health
problems or compromised immunity to stay home and away from large
gatherings and public places.
They also urged companies to allow their employees to work from home
as much as possible, stagger shifts to ease commuter congestion on
public transportation and avoid large work-related gatherings.
[to top of second column] |
"The distancing measures that we're recommending are essential because we need
to slow the spread of the disease to the point where we are able to continue to
handle the load," said Patty Hayes, the public health director for Seattle and
King County.
A growing number of U.S. companies are adopting such steps. On Wednesday
Microsoft Corp asked its employees in the Seattle region near its headquarters
and in the San Francisco Bay Area to work from home if possible until March 25.
In New York state, the number of cases rose to 10 on Wednesday. Three family
members and a neighbor of a lawyer who was previously identified as infected
tested positive. The neighbor's wife and three of his children have also
contracted the virus, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
About 1,000 people in suburban Westchester County, where the two families live,
were under self-quarantine orders because of possible exposure, Cuomo said.
"We are, if anything, being overcautious," he said.
AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, said Wednesday that people in a group from New York
that attended its 18,000-person policy conference in Washington, D.C., this week
potentially had been in contact with an individual who contacted the coronavirus
before the conference.
Dozens of Congress members attended the conference, as well as Vice President
Mike Pence.
EMERGENCY FUNDS
U.S. lawmakers reached bipartisan agreement on an $8.3 billion emergency bill to
help fund efforts to contain the virus. The bill garnered enough votes to pass
in the House of Representatives.
More than $3 billion would be devoted to research and development of coronavirus
vaccines, test kits and therapeutics. There are currently no approved vaccines
or treatments for the fast-spreading illness.
The administration is working to allow laboratories to develop their own
coronavirus tests without seeking regulatory approval first, U.S. Health
Secretary Alex Azar said.
The latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed
129 confirmed and presumed cases in the United States, up from the previous 108.
They were 80 reported by public health authorities in 13 states plus 49 among
people repatriated from abroad, according to the CDC website.
Those figures do not necessarily reflect Wednesday's updates from three states.
Graphic - Tracking the novel coronavirus: https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-MAP/0100B59S39E/index.html
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Laila Kearney in New York;
Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles, Maria Caspani and Hilary
Russ in New York, David Morgan and Richard Cowan in Washington; writing by Grant
McCool; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Lisa Shumaker, Cynthia Osterman, Leslie Adler
and Lincoln Feast.)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
