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Coronavirus updates: First US patient dies in Washington; Trump urges calm
A Washington patient has died from the global coronavirus outbreak, marking the first death in the United States.
There have been 85,997 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus worldwide and 2,941 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. There have been 68 confirmed cases in the United States, with one death reported Saturday in Washington.
The World Health Organization has labeled the coronavirus outbreak a “very high” risk of spread and impact, but has so far stopped short of declaring it a global pandemic.
Here are the latest live updates. All times are Pacific.
1:45 p.m.: Stop buying face masks, surgeon general says
Jerome M. Adams, the U.S. surgeon general, in a Twitter post Saturday urged people to stop buying face masks in an attempt to protect themselves from coronavirus.
“Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS!” he wrote. “They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if health care providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!”
12:55 p.m.: Trump, top U.S. officials urge calm
President Donald Trump and other top U.S. officials on Saturday urged people not to panic amid news of the first coronavirus death in the nation and new infections. USA Today reported.
“Healthy individuals should be able to fully recover, and we think that will be a statement that we can make with great surety now that we’ve gotten familiar with this problem,” Trump said.
The president acknowledged at a White House press conference that additional cases in the United States are likely, but said work is progressing on a vaccine.
“There’s no need to panic,” Trump said. “This is something that’s being handled professionally.”
12:25 p.m.: Two new cases confirmed in Washington
Health officials in Washington have announced two new coronavirus cases — a woman who had recently traveled to South Korea and an Everett high school student with no known connections to anyone with the virus, McClatchy News reported.
The student’s school, Jackson High School in Everett, will be closed and sanitized, health officials said.
Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a state of emergency in Washington.
12 p.m.: New travel restrictions announced
The United States on Saturday banned travel to Iran and elevated travel advisories for regions of Italy and South Korea, McClatchy News reported.
“We want to lower the amount of travel to and from the most impacted areas,” said Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services. “This is a basic containment strategy.”
President Donald Trump said additional travel restrictions and advisories are “likely” at a White House press conference.
11:20 a.m.: First U.S. patient dies of coronavirus
One person in Washington has died of the COVID-19 virus, health officials announced Saturday, according to McClatchy News.
“It is a sad day in our state as we learn that a Washingtonian has died from COVID-19,” said Gov. Jay Inslee in a statement. “Our hearts go out to his family and friends. We will continue to work toward a day where no one dies from this virus.”
The patient, a man in his 50s, died in a hospital in Kirkland, a suburb north of Seattle, health officials reported.
11:20 a.m.: Second California coronavirus case of unknown origin
Santa Clara County health officials Friday reported a second person infected with the COVID-19 virus from an unknown origin in California, McClatchy News reported.
The first such case in the U.S. was reported in Solano County.
A woman in Oregon and a high school student in Washington also have come down with the virus with no known contacts with anyone infected with coronavirus, CNN reported.
Sixty-eight people in the United States have come down with the COVID-19 virus, but until these four cases all had visited China or had close contact with people who had been there, Johns Hopkins University reports.
That makes them the first cases of “community spread” of the disease in the United States, representing a significant turn for the worse, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
“It would confirm what we have long suspected — that there is a good chance there already are people infected in this country and that the virus is circulating undetected,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, epidemiologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, according to The Washington Post.
“It points to the need for expanded surveillance so we know how many more are out there and how to respond,” Nuzzo said, the publication reported.
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