Coronavirus: First California Death Reported As U.S. Toll Grows To 11; Global Death Toll Nears 3,200

    Patrick Hipes

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    The death toll of victims of coronavirus in the U.S. grew to 11 on Wednesday, including the first death in California and another in Washington state, where until today all of the deaths so far have occurred.

    The news comes after three deaths were announced Tuesday, two of which were residents of the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirland, WA, near Seattle, Life Care that has become a flashpoint for the illness. Nine deaths total have occurred in Washington state, which as of today had 39 positive diagnoses of coronavirus, the most in the country.

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    The Centers for Disease Control said that as of Tuesday evening there were 80 coronavirus cases overall in the U.S. in 13 states. That total includes six new cases in Los Angeles County, which today declared a health emergency. The state of California did the same later Wednesday.

    According to the World Health Organization, there are more than 93,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide across 76 countries. There have been more than 3,100 deaths globally, 86 of which occurred in the past 24 hours.

    The two new U.S. deaths Wednesday were confirmed by officials in Placer County, located just northeast of Sacramento in northern California, and the Washington State Department of Health, respectively.

    The California case involved “an elderly adult with underlying health conditions” who was the second patient to test positive for the illness in the county. He was tested presumptively positive on Tuesday, with local officials saying he was likely exposed during international travel last month on a Princess cruise ship traveling from San Francisco to Mexico.

    The Placer County Public Health department said a preliminary investigation suggests the patient ‘had minimal community exposure between returning from the cruise and arriving at the hospital by ambulance on Feb. 27.” The patient had been in isolation at Kaiser Permanente Roseville; 10 of the hospital’s healthcare workers and five emergency responders that had been exposed to the patient are now in quarantine, but currently exhibit no symptoms.

    The CDC says there have been 29 reported cases in California to date.

    Two of the three Washington state victims identified Tuesday died on February 24 and February 26, before the illness became widespread. It made them the first known COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. The first death from the coronavirus in the U.S. was recorded February 29 in Washington state the second patient died Sunday.

    The WHO earlier this week raised the fatality rate for the illness to 3.4%.

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