新闻来源: cnn.com

First death from coronavirus in the United States has occurred in Washington state, officials say

By Christina Maxouris and Dakin Andone, CNN

(CNN)[Breaking news update at 1:15 p.m. ET]

A patient infected with the novel coronavirus in King County, Washington state, has died, a Washington Department of Health spokesperson said Saturday.

It's the first confirmed death from the coronavirus in the United States.

Further details were not immediately available. Health officials have scheduled a press conference for 1 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET).

[Previous story, published at 12:05 p.m. ET]

There are now at least four US coronavirus cases without any related travel history, health officials say.

A woman in Oregon and a high school boy in Washington state are presumptive positives, which means their tests were conducted at local labs but the results have not yet been confirmed by the CDC.

The other two mystery cases are from California.

An older woman in Santa Clara County who had been hospitalized for a respiratory illness tested positive for the virus but had no relevant travel history or contact with anyone infected, health officials said.

"This new case indicates that there is evidence of community transmission, but the extent is still not clear," said Dr. Sara Cody, director of the county's public health department.

The other California case is a Solano County woman who is hospitalized at UC Davis Medical Center and in serious condition.

The two counties are about 90 miles apart. The Santa Clara patient had not traveled to Solano County, officials said.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue calls coronavirus a 'pandemic'

With an increase in cases with unknown origins and a change in testing guidelines across the country, CDC officials said they were hoping to have every state and local health department testing for the virus by the end of next week.

As of early Saturday, there were at least 67 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the US -- the majority of which were repatriated passengers from the Diamond Princess Cruise ship. Worldwide, the virus has killed at least 2,922 -- including 2,835 people in China -- and there have been 85,055 confirmed cases.

The World Health Organization has "increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at a global level," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday, referring to the WHO's formal name for the disease caused by the virus.

"The continued increase in the number of cases," he said, "and the number of affected countries over the last few days, are clearly of concern."

Here's what else you need to know heading into the weekend:

原文链接: 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/29/health/us-coronavirus-saturday/index.html