Sunday 30 / June / 2024
San Francisco: The Washington State Department of Health confirmed the first death in connection with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Saturday as more cases of unknown origin were reported in western U.S. states.
One person has died from COVID-19 in King County, Washington, making his/her death the first such case in the United States, health officials said.
The department made no further details about how the victim contracted the virus. President Donald Trump said later in a press briefing Saturday afternoon that the victim is a woman in her late 50s.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee said "it is a sad day in our state as we learn that a Washingtonian has died from COVID-19."
"In partnership with the Washington State Department of Health, the Washington State Department of Emergency Management and local and community health partners, we are strengthening our preparedness and response efforts," he said.
Washington health officials announced two new cases of COVID-19 in the state Friday night. The two patients are a student at Jackson High School in Mill Creek and a King County woman in her 50s, who recently traveled to Daegu, South Korea.
Washington reported the first COVID-19 case of the United States last month after a man in his 30s from Snohomish County tested COVID-19 positive following his return from China's Wuhan city.
As the number of COVID-19 cases increased globally, more cases of the coronavirus disease of unknown origin have been reported in U.S. western states, triggering concern about local person-to-person spread of the infectious disease.
The Santa Clara County of California reported a second COVID-19 case of unknown origin in the United States on Friday, while Oregon Health Authority said an elementary school employee tested coronavirus positive, though the person had no travel history nor close contact with infected individuals.The Oregon patient is the state's first "presumptive" COVID-19 case ever reported.
Trump said the United States currently has 22 confirmed COVID-19 cases, while data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that there have been three cases of person-to-person transmission. There are also 47 infected people who evacuated from either Wuhan city or the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan.
Italy's confirmed coronavirus cases exceed 1,000
A total of 1,049 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Italy, Civil Protection Department chief and Extraordinary Commissioner for the coronavirus emergency Angelo Borrelli said on Saturday.
This figure did not comprise fatalities and recoveries.
"Some 543 people -- or 52 percent of those affected -- are currently under house quarantine, since they are asymptomatic, or presents light symptoms and need no hospital treatments," Borrelli told a press conference at 6 p.m. local time (1700 GMT).
Another 401 people (38 percent) were hospitalized with symptoms, and 105 (10 percent) in hospital in intensive care, the official added.
The death toll rose to 29 people from 21, after eight more people died, with six in the Lombardy region and two in the Emilia Romagna region.
"However, this figure can be confirmed only after the National Health Institute (ISS) has definitely established the cause of death," the Health Ministry stated.
The number of people who have recovered from the infection also rose to 50 from 46 in the previous day.
Considering both fatalities and recoveries, the official count of cases in the country thus reached 1,128.
The majority of the infections were still registered in northern Lombardy (615 cases), central Emilia Romagna (217), and northeast Veneto (191), according to the Civil Protection chief.
"There are currently some 1,800 law enforcement officials and 800 Civil Protection volunteers deployed across the country to assist doctors and medical staff," Borrelli also explained.
Assessing the overall situation at the press conference with the commissioner, National Institute of Health (ISS) President Silvio Brusaferro explained it was still too early to see the impact of the containment measures adopted on the infection evolution.
"The effects of the measures adopted last week will be visible in some 13-14 days, which coincides more or less with the incubation period," Brusaferro told reporters.
"Therefore, the cases we are seeing today are believed to be related -- for the great majority -- to people who were infected before the measures entered into force," he explained.
Officials first confirmed the coronavirus outbreak on Feb. 21, when six cases of infection emerged in the small town of Codogno in Lombardy.
In response, Codogno and another nine nearby towns were put under lockdown in an effort to contain the spread of the virus. The same occurred to another town in Veneto, after another hotbed of coronavirus was registered in that region.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's cabinet passed a first package of measures to support households, companies, and economic sectors in the worst affected areas -- those put under quarantine in Lombardy and Veneto -- on Friday, and a second package to contain the impact on the overall domestic economy was announced.
"In the next days, we will approve a broader and more substantial decree. The country must face this emergency with resolution, cohesion, and faith," Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri wrote on Twitter.
