The Latest: US death toll from coronavirus rises to 37
The Latest on the coronavirus outbreak sweeping the globe:
The death toll from the new coronavirus has risen to at least 37 deaths.
Seattle’s King County reported four new deaths Wednesday. Three were residents of Life Care Center in suburban Kirkland, where most of Washington state’s deaths have occurred.
The fourth death was a woman living at another care center. She died at a hospital on Tuesday.
Of the 37 known deaths in the U.S., 29 are in Washington state. The governor on Wednesday also banned all events and gatherings of more than 250 people in Seattle’s metro area. The Seattle Public Schools system also will close.
Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous, reported its first death Wednesday, and San Francisco banned gatherings of 1,000 or more people.
It comes as sporting events, concerts, parades and other large gatherings have been canceled or postponed nationwide over coronavirus fears.
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Italy’s premier says all stores except pharmacies and grocery stores are being closed nationwide in response to the country’s coronavirus outbreak.
Premier Giuseppe Conte thanked the public for cooperating with the already unprecedented travel and social restrictions that took effect Tuesday.
But he said Wednesday night on Facebook Live that Italy must ” go another step” by closing all shops and businesses except for food stores, pharmacies and other shops selling ”essential” items.
The tighter restrictions on daily life are the government’s latest effort to respond to the fast-moving crisis that took Italy’s number of cases from three to 12,462 in less than three weeks.
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A woman with underlying health conditions has died of the coronavirus in the most populous county in the U.S., making her one of at least 33 people nationwide to succumb to COVID-19.
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Wednesday that the woman lives outside the county and had been visiting friends after recent travel, with a long layover in South Korea. She was over 60 and died in a hospital.
It’s the first death from the virus in the Los Angeles County, which has 27 cases. Most of the deaths have been in Washington state.
Separately, seniors at a Northern California assisted living facility have been placed in a two-week quarantine after a woman in her 90s died of the coronavirus.
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Iran’s information and communications technology minister has tweeted a map of Iran that shows the virus affecting almost the entire country.
Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said Wednesday that the image was based on data exploration and analysis from a website on which some 3.5 million Iranians shared their information regarding the virus.
Iran reported another jump in deaths, by 62 to 354 — behind only China and Italy.
Jahromi said asked people not to travel to tourist spots.
The website ac19.ir gathers personal information from participants who share their health information.
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The United Nations has postponed two major meetings on biodiversity and indigenous issues over concerns about the new coronavirus, and the Security Council is making changes to prevent its spread.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday that no cases of COVID-19 have been reported at U.N. headquarters. But he confirmed that a teacher at the private United Nations International School about a mile away has tested positive and that the school has been closed.
Dujarric said there are plans for the U.N. to operate remotely if necessary.
China’s U.N. ambassador, Zhang Jun, the current Security Council president, said all 15 members of the U.N.’s most powerful body have agreed to scale down staff at meetings and move consultations from a small room to the main council chamber to ensure “we have more space and we have less people.”
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The Seattle Public School system will close due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in Washington state, which prompted the governor to ban all events and gatherings of more than 250 people in Seattle’s metro area.
The closure announced by Seattle Public Schools in a statement affects about 53,000 students and came after Gov. Jay Inslee made his announcement about events and gatherings.
The school system’s statement issued Wednesday did not say how long the closure would last, saying only that all instruction and activity is canceled until further notice.
The Seattle district’s closure came after a suburban district north of Seattle with 22,000 students closed schools and started using online lessons.
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Italy is welcoming China’s offer to send a team of experts to the European nation to share clinical data about efforts to contain the coronavirus.
The head of infectious disease at the National Institutes of Health says Italy “had a lot to learn” from China. Dr. Giovanni Rezza says that particularly includes data about its experimental anti-viral drug regimens and intensive care treatments.
Italy is the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe and, with more than 12,000 infections, ranks second only to China in terms of caseload. Some hospitals in hard-hit Lombardy are at a saturation point given limited intensive care beds.
China has offered to send teams of experts as well as surplus protective gear, respirators and other equipment it no longer needs now that the virus is on the retreat there but spreading in other countries.
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India has suspended some visas until April 15 to try to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
Some categories, like diplomatic, official or employment visas, are exempt. The restrictions start Friday. Foreign nationals who need to travel to India for a “compelling reason” were asked to contact the nearest India mission.
All travelers who have arrived from or who visited China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, France, Spain and Germany after Feb. 15 will be quarantined for 14 days.
Indian authorities have confirmed 60 cases of the new virus, and no deaths have been reported. Indians have been advised against traveling abroad.
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A Philippine senator says he and President Rodrigo Duterte will get tested for the new coronavirus after meeting with Cabinet officials who were exposed to people with infections.
Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, a former Duterte aide, said late Wednesday that he and the president have not had symptoms and plan to undergo testing Thursday as a precaution.
Go told reporters in a statement that he and the president regularly interact with some Cabinet members who decided to self-quarantine after being exposed to people with the COVID-19 virus.
A presidential spokesman says the 74-year-old Duterte postponed a trip to the central resort island of Boracay on Thursday over concerns about COVID-19.
Philippine health officials have reported 49 cases. Two of the infected patients, a Chinese and a Filipino, died.
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Guatemala is barring Europeans and citizens from China, South Korea and Iran to try to keep the new coronavirus out of the Central American country.
Health Minister Hugo Monroy said Wednesday that “starting tomorrow, entry by all European citizens is prohibited.”
Authorities in the Central American nation also ordered 14-day quarantines for Guatemalans who arrive after traveling to Europe.
Guatemala has no confirmed cases of the new virus. The World Health Organization has declared the worldwide outbreak a pandemic.
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says it will hold a major conference that features speeches by top leaders without any attendees next month to try to avoid spread of the new coronavirus.
The Utah-based faith with 16 million members worldwide said Wednesday that the speeches will be broadcast on television and the internet with no one from the public attending.
The twice-yearly conference usually brings about 100,000 people to Salt Lake City over two days.
The only people allowed inside the church conference center on April 4-5 will be top leaders, their spouses, musicians, choir members and technicians.
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Officials have banned large gatherings and events in the Seattle metro area and in San Francisco to try to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced the ban Wednesday on events with more than 250 people in three counties with nearly 4 million people. At least 25 people have died in the state.
The order lasts through March and could be extended. It wouldn’t shut down businesses or schools but applies to sporting events like Seattle Sounders soccer games. The Mariners baseball team will move home games from Seattle.
Also Wednesday, the San Francisco mayor banned gatherings of 1,000 or more people, including Golden State Warriors games.
California’s Santa Clara County, home to San Jose and Silicon Valley, announced a ban Monday on all gatherings of 1,000 people or more.
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More European countries are reporting their first deaths of people with the new coronavirus.
The death in Sweden of an elderly woman who had been in intensive care represented the first virus-related death for the whole Nordic-Baltic region.
A doctor with the regional hospital authority in Stockholm emphasized that the experience elsewhere indicates it’s “the elderly and especially the elderly with other underlying illnesses that have the most serious consequences of COVID-19.
Ireland also recorded the country’s first death of a person infected with the new coronavirus. The Department of Health said the person had an underlying illness but gave no other details. There have been 34 confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland.
Belgium, Bulgaria and Albania reported their first virus-related deaths earlier on Wednesday.
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World Health Organization officials are telling national governments it’s time for aggressive action now that the worldwide coronavirus outbreak has reached the level of a pandemic.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that with the U.N. health agency’s pandemic declaration on Wednesday, countries were being called upon “to scale up your emergency response mechanisms.”
His advice included: “Ready your hospitals, protect and train your health workers, and let’s all look out for each other because we need each other.”
Illustrating the severity and speed of the virus’ spread, Italian officials said Wednesday evening that coronavirus cases in the country grew to 12,462 infections and 827 deaths.
They attributed the one-day increase to the heavily impacted Lombardy region not fully reporting its numbers on Tuesday.
Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO’s emergencies chief, gave a blunt warning about the urgency of the public health emergency.
Ryan said: “Iran and Italy are in the frontline now. They’re suffering, but I guarantee you other countries will be in that situation soon.”
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The World Health Organization has declared the worldwide outbreak of the new coronavirus a pandemic.
Speaking in Geneva on Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the spread of COVID-19 had reached the level of a pandemic, noting there are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries and 4,291 deaths.
He said that while the declaration “doesn’t change what countries should do” to aggressively contain the virus, the U.N. health agency is “deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity.”
Tedros said: “We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear.
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The U.S. State Department says foreign ministers from leading industrial nations who had planned to meet in Pittsburgh this month will instead hold a video teleconference because of coronavirus concerns.
State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement on Wednesday that the change in the Group of Seven meeting was made “out of an abundance of caution.”
The G-7 consists of the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan. The meeting was scheduled for March 24-25.
The worldwide epidemic also led more universities to move their classes online, the pope’s weekly catechism lesson to be live-streamed and governments to ban public gatherings.
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Italy’s justice minister says 12 prison inmates died of drug overdoses and 16 others escaped during riots at more than two-dozen prisons sparked by new coronavirus containment measures.
The riots on Sunday and Monday broke out after corrections authorities suspended or limited family visits for two weeks to prevent the spread of infections.
While briefing the Italian Parliament on the prison riots, Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede said the unrest involved some 6,000 prisoners at facilities around the country.
Bonafede confirmed on Wednesday that 16 inmates broke out of a medium-security prison in Foggia and remained at large. The 12 prisoners who died overdosed after breaking into prison infirmaries.
The minister says 40 prison guards were injured.
Anxiety about the virus and overcrowding fueled the protest over the family visit decision.
The Italian Justice Ministry ministry says 100,000 face masks have been allocated to protect prison guards, personnel and inmates alike.
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The director of the U.S. government health agency that deals with infectious diseases says he’d welcome the restoration of a White House National Security Council office that dealt with pandemic preparedness.
Dr. Anthony Fauci directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Lawmakers asked him at a House Oversight hearing on Wednesday if the dismantling of the National Security Council office had been a mistake.
Fauci responded that he wouldn’t necessarily characterize that as a mistake. But he added: “We worked very well with that office, and it would be nice if that office were still there.”
Congressional Democrats accuse the Trump administration of dismantling the pandemic preparedness office and are pushing legislation to set up such an office again.
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Belgium’s health ministry has announced the country’s first three deaths related to the novel coronavirus and Albania and Bulgaria each had their first deaths.
In Belgium, a 90-year-old woman and two men aged 73 and 86 with the virus have died.
The ministry said infections have been confirmed in 314 people but it expects more cases to soon emerge in Belgium.
Health authorities in Bulgaria say the country’s first virus victim was a 66-year-old woman who had a preexisting health condition, while Albanian authorities reported the death of a 73-year-old-woman with complications from other diseases.
Honduras, meanwhile, confirmed its first two coronavirus cases. One was a 42-year-old pregnant woman who traveled from Spain to Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. . The other patient is a 37-year-old woman who had traveled from Switzerland.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has told a U.S. House committee that the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. is going to get worse.
Fauci told the the House Oversight and Reform Committee in Washington on Wednesday that “I can say we will see more cases and things will get worse than they are right now.”
He says how much worse it gets depends on two things: the ability of U.S. authorities to curtail the influx of travelers who may be bringing the disease into the country and the ability of states and communities to contain local outbreaks in this country.
Asked if the worst is yet to come, Fauci said: “Yes, it is.”
Centers for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield reported that U.S. virus deaths now stand at 31 and confirmed cases are over 1,000.
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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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