US Confirms 2nd Coronavirus Fatality

A second person has died of the novel coronavirus in the Seattle area and more confirmed cases of the illness have emerged in Washington State, officials said Sunday evening.

Public health leaders in King County said a man in his 70s with underlying health conditions died on Saturday at EvergreenHealth Hospital in Kirkland.

That’s the same facility where officials identified the nation’s first coronavirus death on Saturday.

Officials also announced three other confirmed coronavirus cases in the county, all at EvergreenHealth. All were in critical condition with underlying health issues.

All four new cases were residents of a nursing facility in Kirkland where two other people had previously tested positive.

Also on Sunday, the county had previously reported two other patients, unrelated to the nursing facility, who were in critical condition at hospitals in Renton and Seattle.

As of Sunday night, 88 cases of coronavirus had been identified in the United States.

The first of those cases was announced on Jan. 21, but this weekend saw a marked uptick in the pace of diagnoses. Twenty-three US cases were announced on Saturday and Sunday, including the country’s first two deaths, both in Washington State.

The cases identified over the weekend were in Washington, California, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York, Florida and Oregon, and included a mix of people who had traveled to high-risk countries and those who were believed to have contracted the disease domestically.

Source: New York Times