Category: Health & Medicine

New Study Details How Long It Takes Coronavirus Symptoms To Show, How Long To Self-Isolate

A new study published this week conducted by researchers for the American College of Physicians details how long it generally takes for symptoms of coronavirus to show up and provides recommendations on how long to self-isolate if exposed to the virus.

The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday, found that it takes by average about 5 days for symptoms of coronavirus to show up after infection — about 95% of the cases researchers studied showed up within 4 to 6 days — and that almost all (97.5%) who have been infected have displayed symptoms within 12 days.

Based on those findings, researchers concluded, the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) recommendation of a 14-day self-isolation period for those who have been potentially exposed to the virus is appropriate, though a longer period might be justified in some “extreme cases” — which the researchers describe as “high-risk scenarios,” like health care workers who care for COVID-19 patients without proper protective equipment. Excerpts from the report below:

There were 181 confirmed cases with identifiable exposure and symptom onset windows to estimate the incubation period of COVID-19. The median incubation period was estimated to be 5.1 days (95% CI, 4.5 to 5.8 days), and 97.5% of those who develop symptoms will do so within 11.5 days (CI, 8.2 to 15.6 days) of infection. These estimates imply that, under conservative assumptions, 101 out of every 10 000 cases (99th percentile, 482) will develop symptoms after 14 days of active monitoring or quarantine. … This work provides additional evidence for a median incubation period for COVID-19 of approximately 5 days, similar to SARS. Our results support current proposals for the length of quarantine or active monitoring of persons potentially exposed to SARS-CoV-2, although longer monitoring periods might be justified in extreme cases.

Although our results support current proposals for the length of quarantine or active monitoring of persons potentially exposed to SARS-CoV-2, longer monitoring periods might be justified in extreme cases. Among those who are infected and will develop symptoms, we expect 101 in 10 000 (99th percentile, 482) will do so after the end of a 14-day monitoring period (Table 2 and Figure 3), and our analyses do not preclude this estimate from being higher. Although it is essential to weigh the costs of extending active monitoring or quarantine against the potential or perceived costs of failing to identify a symptomatic case, there may be high-risk scenarios (for example, a health care worker who cared for a COVID-19 patient while not wearing personal protective equipment) where it could be prudent to extend the period of active monitoring.

In its current risk assessment for the virus, the Centers for Disease Control maintains that the risk of being exposed remains low for the majority of people in most parts of the country and in most professions. Below are the summaries of the CDC’s current risk assessment:

• For the majority of people, the immediate risk of being exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19 is thought to be low. There is not widespread circulation in most communities in the United States.
• People in places where ongoing community spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 has been reported are at elevated risk of exposure, with increase in risk dependent on the location.
• Healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19 are at elevated risk of exposure.
• Close contacts of persons with COVID-19 also are at elevated risk of exposure.
• Travelers returning from affected international locations where community spread is occurring also are at elevated risk of exposure, with increase in risk dependent on location.

While the risk of contracting the virus for most Americans remains low, the CDC explains that the number of cases will likely continue to expand in the coming days and presents the following potential scenarios for how that might impact the communities:

More cases of COVID-19 are likely to be identified in the United States in the coming days, including more instances of community spread. It’s likely that at some point, widespread transmission of COVID-19 in the United States will occur. Widespread transmission of COVID-19 would translate into large numbers of people needing medical care at the same time. Schools, childcare centers, and workplaces, may experience more absenteeism. Mass gatherings may be sparsely attended or postponed. Public health and healthcare systems may become overloaded, with elevated rates of hospitalizations and deaths. Other critical infrastructure, such as law enforcement, emergency medical services, and sectors of the transportation industry may also be affected. Healthcare providers and hospitals may be overwhelmed. At this time, there is no vaccine to protect against COVID-19 and no medications approved to treat it. Nonpharmaceutical interventions would be the most important response strategy.

Italian doctor describes dealing with coronavirus: ‘This isn’t flu, I’m shaking’
Italy’s Dr. Daniele Macchini, describes his experience with coronavirus. Here it is, translated from the original Italian.

Dr. Daniele Macchini, a doctor at Humanitas Gavazzeni hospital in Bergamo, northern Italy, described on Facebook how his hospital has been affected by coronavirus.

“After much thought about if and what to write about what is happening to us, I felt that silence is not responsible,” he wrote. “Therefore I will try to tell people who are far from our reality about what we are living in Bergamo in these days. I understand the need not to create panic, but when the message of how dangerous events are is not reaching people, I shake with fear.”

“I myself watched with a certain amount of amazement as the hospital was reorganized entirely over the past week. When our current enemy was still in the shadows: The departments ‘slowly emptied,’ elective activities were stopped, ICU patients were transferred there in order to empty as many beds as possible.

“All of these rapid changes brought an atmosphere of surreal silence and emptiness to the hospitals’ hallways, when we still did not understand, when we were waiting for a war that had not yet begun and that many (including myself) were not sure that would ever come with such cruelty.

“I still remember the nighttime conversation I had a week ago, when I waited for the results of the test. When I think about it, my fear of the possible situation looks almost stupid and unjustified now, when I’m seeing what’s happening. And so, things are pretty dramatic here, to say the least.

“The war broke out, very simply, and the battles were endless, day and night. But now the need for beds has come to be big drama. One after the other, the departments which were emptied are filling up at an impressive pace.

“The boards with the patients’ names, in different colors in accordance with the operation units, now they’re all red and instead of the operation, we see always see the same horrible diagnosis: Bilateral interstitial lung disease.

“Now explain to me how the flu virus causes such drama, so quickly. And there are still people who are proud of the fact that they’re not scared, and ignore the guidelines, and protest that their lifestyle has ‘temporarily’ been put in crisis.

“The epidemiological disaster is happening. And there are no more surgeons, urologists, orthopedists. We’re just doctors who have suddenly become part of one staff that’s facing this tsunami that’s overwhelmed us.

“The cases are becoming more numerous, we’re seeing 15-20 hospitalizations per day, and it’s all for the same reason. The test results come in now one after the other: Positive, positive, positive. Suddenly the emergency room is collapsing.

“The reason for coming in is always identical: Fever and difficulty breathing, fever and cough, respiratory failure. Radiology always reports the same thing: Bilateral lung infection, bilateral lung infection, bilateral lung infection. They’re all going to be hospitalized.

“One patient needs intubation and the intensive care unit. For others it’s too late….all the ventilation machines have become gold. Those in the operating rooms which have ceased their non-urgent work have become intensive care rooms which did not previously exist.

“The staff is exhausted. I saw their exhaustion on the faces which have not seen such work, despite the overload of work that already exhausted them. I saw the solidarity among everyone, who never ceased turning to our internal medicine doctors and colleagues, asking, ‘And what can I do for you now?’

“Doctors are moving beds and transferring patients. Nurses have tears in their eyes because we can’t save them all and thee vital signs of several of them simultaneously reveal their known fate.

“There’s no more shifts, there are no more hours. Our social lives have been put on hold. We don’t see our families already, out of fear we might infect them. Some of us have already become infected, despite the protective protocols.”

 

One slide in a leaked presentation for US hospitals reveals that they’re preparing for millions of hospitalizations as the outbreak unfolds

With this bug, I think it’s better for the hospitals to prepare for something that may be 10 times worse than a ‘severe’ flu season. As it is, his estimate of how deadly it is, the CFR or “Case Fatality Rate”, is an average of only .05% or 1 out of 200, and that’s much less than the 3-3.5% number being bandied about. Of course, that’s an average and our elderly seem to have it worse off.

Hospitals are bracing for millions of Americans to be hospitalized as part of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The American Hospital Association, which represents thousands of hospitals and health systems, hosted a webinar in February with its member hospitals and health systems. Business Insider obtained a copy of the slides presented. 

The presentation, titled “What healthcare leaders need to know: Preparing for the COVID-19” happened February 26, with representatives from the National Ebola Training and Education Center. 

As part of the presentation to hospitals, Dr. James Lawler, a professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center gave his “best guess” estimates of how much the virus might spread in the US.

Lawler’s estimates include:

• 4.8 million hospitalizations associated with the novel coronavirus
• 96 million cases overall in the US
• 480,000 deaths
• Overall, the slide points out that hospitals should prepare for an impact to the system that’s 10 times a severe flu season.

Here’s the slide:

AHA webinar

The slide does not give a particular time frame.

The slide represents “his interpretation of the data available. It’s possible that forecast will change as more information becomes available,” a spokesman for Nebraska Medicine told Business Insider in an email.

The American Hospital Association said the webinar reflects the views of the experts who spoke on it, not its own.

“The AHA regularly hosts webinars and conference calls that include a variety of voices and opinions that seek to provide relevant information to professionals at hospitals and health systems that are on the front lines of preparing for and protecting their patients and communities,” a spokeswoman for the AHA told Business Insider in an emailed statement. “The slides you shared reflect the various perspectives of field experts and should not be attributed to the AHA.”

In particular, the slide points out that hospitals should prepare for an impact to the system that’s 10 times a severe flu season.

17 deaths from COVID-19 in Washington as officials scramble to contain

SEATTLE — Two more deaths from coronavirus were reported Saturday, bringing the total to 17 in Washington state. So far, at least 104 have tested positive for COVID-19, health officials said.

The deaths come just a day after three people died at EvergreenHealth Medical Hospital, officials said. One earlier reported death occurred in a patient never hospitalized and the other was a death at Harborview last week that was later found to have been likely caused by COVID-19. In total, there are 28 confirmed cases of coronavirus at EvergreenHealth.

Of the 16 coronavirus deaths reported in King County, 14 are associated with Life Care Center In Kirkland. Eighteen residents have also tested positive for COVID-19, according to Tim Killian, public liaison for Life Care Center.

Killian went on to say that since February 19, Life Care Center reported 26 deaths. Since that date, 11 additional patients died at the facility. They generally have three to seven deaths a month, Killian said. Life Care Center is still waiting back for reports on post-mortem testing and whether 11 of those patients tested positive for coronavirus. They received 45 testing kits on Thursday.

As for staff coming and going day-by-day, KOMO News is told they’re following infection control protocol. “We’ve learned that the virus is volatile, unpredictable,” Killian said. Patients have gone from showing no symptoms to being rushed to the hospital in an hour

Of the 120 residents at the facility, 54 were also transported to hospitals, Killian added. It’s not clear that all 54 were transported for coronavirus or other medical reasons.

Since February 19, Life Care accounted for 180 employees with 70 of them showing symptoms. They are self-quarantining at home. As for moving seemingly healthy people out of Life Center, KOMO News is told no one wants to take them in.

“We are working overtime to take care of residents,” Killian said. “This is a larger issue than just our facility. Encouraging anyone who visited to keep in touch with their doctors. No ballpark on how many people may have visited during the outbreak.”…….

Over in Kittitas County, a 67-year-old woman also tested positive for coronavirus Saturday, according to the Kittitas County Public Health Department. The woman is in stable condition and is self-quarantined at home with her spouse.

The test results are presumptive positive from the University of Washington, which means there will still be confirmatory testing completed at the Washington State Department of Health.

The virus has spread to Clark, Pierce, Jefferson, Grant, Snohomish and Kittitas counties, the Washington State Department of Health reports. Another 156 people are under public health supervision.

A patient at Issaquah Nursing and Rehabilitation Center tested positive for COVID-19 Saturday. Three Eastside Fire and Rescue firefighters who came in contact with the patient are self-quarantining out of an abundance of caution and are currently asymptomatic…….

Florida: 2 dead in the state who tested positive for virus

MIAMI (AP) — Two people who tested positive for the new coronavirus have died in Florida, marking the first deaths on the East Coast attributed to the outbreak in the U.S., health officials said Friday.

The Florida Department of Health said the two people who died were in their 70s and had traveled overseas. The announcement raises the U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus strain to 16, including 13 in the state of Washington and one in California.

One of the Florida deaths was that of a man with underlying health issues in Santa Rosa County in Florida’s Panhandle, according to the statement. The health department added that the second death was that of an elderly person in Lee County, in the Fort Myers area.

The statement did not give immediate indications of where the two had traveled or whether officials were seeking to determine who they came in contact with.

Helen Aguirre Ferre, a spokeswoman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, confirmed the deaths and other new cases in South Florida, on Twitter. She promised in her tweet that updates would be provided regularly as they become available.

As of Friday, Florida authorities said seven people in the state have tested positive for COVID-19. They said six are Florida residents and the seventh is a non-resident.

So How Deadly is Coronavirus? You’re Most Likely to Die if You’re a Man, Elderly and Have an Underlying Heart Condition, Stats Suggest

Men are 65 per cent more likely than women to die from coronavirus, according to statistics.

Figures from the World Health Organization and Chinese scientists have revealed that 1.7 per cent of women who catch the virus will die compared to 2.8 per cent of men, even though neither sex is more likely to catch it.

More than 98,000 people around the world have now been diagnosed with the virus, which causes a disease called COVID-19, and at least 3,383 have died.

Some experts have put the higher risk among men down to higher smoking and drinking rates – both habits weaken the immune system, making people more likely to get ill.

The elderly and infirm have also been found to more at risk of coronavirus, with 10.5 per cent of heart disease patients expected to die if they catch the deadly virus.

Death rates among people with diabetes – of which there are four million in the UK and 34m in the US – are expected to be around 7.3 per cent, while six per cent of patients who have high blood pressure might die if infected.

Some 5.6 per cent of cancer sufferers infected with the coronavirus would be expected to die along with 6.3 per cent of people with long-term lung diseases.

In the US, at least 233 people have now been confirmed to have the coronavirus, and 12 have died from it, while in the UK there has been one death among 116 cases.

Figures from the World Health Organization and Chinese scientists has revealed that 1.7 per cent of woman who catch the virus will die compared to 2.8 per cent of men (pictured, a graphic showing those most likely at risk from the virus)

Coronavirus Updates: SXSW Canceled; 21 Aboard Princess Cruise Ship Infected; 7 More States Report Cases

A second medical screener who checks travelers at Los Angeles International Airport has been confirmed to have the coronavirus, one of two new cases reported in Los Angeles County Friday.

The screener is linked to another medical screener who worked in the same quarantine station and was confirmed to have the virus earlier this week, Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said at a press conference Friday.

A second new case was a traveler in a group of people who visited Italy, several of whom were earlier confirmed to have the virus. The county has confirmed 13 cases of the virus, and one has been “resolved,” Ferrer said.

Coronavirus Cases Near 100,000 as Countries Struggle to Contain Spread: In the U.S., there have been 233 confirmed cases and 12 deaths, mostly in the state of Washington.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases globally neared 100,000 on Friday, as infections outside of China continued to mount and many countries and cities struggled to get the epidemic under control.

There were 98,698 confirmed cases of the virus world-wide, more than a fifth of which were in countries other than China, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. South Korea, the second worst-hit country, reported another jump in infections, bringing its tally to 6,593. The novel coronavirus is now in around 90 countries, less than three months after it was first identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December.

Chinese health authorities on Friday reported 143 new infections, but said that for the first time there were no new cases in the wider Hubei province outside of its capital of Wuhan in the previous day. The vast majority of China’s 80,555 cases have been in Hubei province, and authorities in late January locked down Wuhan and neighboring cities to help contain the disease’s spread.

Globally, 3,383 individuals have died from the illness known as Covid-19 and 55,444 have recovered. In the U.S., there have been 233 confirmed cases and 12 deaths, mostly in the state of Washington, where some schools in the Seattle area will be closed for two weeks and companies have told employees to work from home.
On Friday, a top Hong Kong university released research that surmised the “fatality risk” for symptomatic Covid-19 patients was 1.4%, based on data its researchers analyzed from the city of Wuhan.

That is lower than the 3.4% mortality rate cited earlier this week by the World Health Organization, which was calculated from the number of deaths relative to the total number of confirmed infections.

Italy shutters all schools, universities as COVID-19 death toll reaches 107.

March 4 (UPI) — Italian education officials closed all schools and universities Wednesday in reaction to a coronavirus outbreak that has killed 107 people in the country.

Education Minister Lucia Azzolina made the announcement with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte during a news conference at Palazzo Chigi, Conte’s residence in Rome…………

Italy’s Civil Protection Agency said that in addition to the deaths, there were 2,706 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease in the country as of Wednesday. Most were centered in the Lombardy region, with smaller clusters in Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Piedmont, the Marche, Campania, Liguria, Tuscany, Lazio, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sicily, Puglia, Abruzzo, Trento, Molise, Umbria, Bolzano, Calabria, Sardinia and Basilicata.

Some 276 people have recovered from the disease.

Iran’s coronavirus response: Pride, paranoia, secrecy, chaos

Nearly three dozen Iranian government officials and members of parliament are infected, and a senior adviser to the supreme leader has died.

The Health Ministry has proposed sending 300,000 militia members door to door on a desperate mission to sanitize homes. The top prosecutor has warned that anyone hoarding face masks and other public health equipment risks the death penalty.

Iran’s leaders confidently predicted just two weeks ago that the coronavirus contagion ravaging China would not be a problem in their country. They even bragged of exporting face masks to their Chinese trading partners.

Now Iran is battered by coronavirus infections that have killed 77 people, among the most outside of China, officials said Tuesday. But instead of receiving government help, overwhelmed doctors and nurses say they have been warned by security forces to keep quiet. And some officials say Tehran’s hierarchy is understating the true extent of the outbreak — probably, experts contend, because it will be viewed as a failure that enemies will exploit.

As the world wrestles with the spread of the coronavirus, the epidemic in Iran is a lesson in what happens when a secretive state with limited resources tries to play down an outbreak and then finds it very difficult to contain.

Feds sending health experts to a Washington hospital as state’s death toll from coronavirus reaches nine

This bug gets loose in another nursing home and we’ll see the same thing.

Two more residents of King County, Washington, have died from the coronavirus, bringing the state’s total to nine, as a top health official tells US senators he is deploying more personnel to a Kirkland hospital where most of the patients died.

The two additional victims actually died before the previously reported deaths, on February 26. They were identified as a woman in her 80s who died at her family home and man in his 50s who died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, county health officials said in a statement.

Both were residents of Life Care Center, a chain of long-term nursing facilities that is linked to many of the fatal cases, officials said.

The state has had at least 21 cases. Eight of those who died were from King County, and one was from Snohomish County, county officials said. At least six of the patients died at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland, where the federal health experts are being sent.

Dr. Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary of preparedness and response for the US Department of Health and Human Services, described to a US Senate committee the type of experts he was hoping to send across the country.

“We’re looking to employ and deploy some of our national disaster medical system personnel as well as other federal health care personnel to assist at the Evergreen long-term treatment facility,” he said.

At the Life Care Center that county officials say was home to at least nine of the patients who came down with coronavirus, more than 50 residents and staff members were experiencing symptoms and were tested for the virus, King County health officer Jeffrey Duchin said Monday.

“Current residents and associates continue to be monitored closely, specifically for an elevated temperature, cough and/or shortness of breath,” officials said in a statement on the Life Care website. “Any resident displaying these symptoms is placed in isolation. Associates are screened prior to beginning work and upon leaving.”

A US Department of Homeland Security facility in King County was shut down Tuesday after officials learned an employee had visited a relative at Life Care, acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said during a House hearing.

GA governor confirms 2 cases of COVID-19 in Fulton County.

Well, Delta airlines does have that hub in Atlanta. What should we expect?

ATLANTA, Ga. (WATE) — Georgia governor Brian Kemp and state public health officials confirmed Monday night the state’s first two COVID-19 coronavirus cases.

According to a news release from the Georgia Department of Public Health, the two cases involve residents of the same household in Fulton County. Both people have mild symptoms and they were being isolated at home with other relatives to keep the illness from spreading.

One of the patients had recently returned from Italy, the release stated.

Earlier Monday evening, Gov. Kemp spoke with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence about the two confirmed coronavirus cases, the news release stated, and the Governor’s Coronavirus Task Force was briefed via conference call at roughly 9:30 p.m. Monday.

We knew that Georgia would likely have confirmed cases of COVID-19, and we planned for it. The immediate risk of COVID-19 to the general public, however, remains low at this time,” said Kathleen E. Toomey, M.D., M.P.H, DPH commissioner. “I cannot emphasize enough the need for all Georgians to follow the simple precautions that DPH always urges to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses.”

Coronavirus in Washington state: 6 dead, 12 others infected

‘The elderly and ill’ were already on the list of those most susceptible to this bug. That it caused these deaths isn’t surprising. That it got loose as has is thought as it indicates someone was slacking off on precautions for a facility like this.

SEATTLE – Six people have now died from the coronavirus in the Puget Sound area and at least 12 others have been infected, health officials said Monday, as King County’s top executive issued an emergency declaration in response to the outbreak.

The newest victims in King County include:

– A man in his 70s, a resident of LifeCare who was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. The man had underlying health conditions and died Sunday.

A woman in her 70s, a resident of LifeCare, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. She had underlying health conditions and died Sunday.

– A woman in her 80s, who was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth and was one of the earlier reported infected and died Sunday.

And a Snohomish County man in his 40s at EvergreenHealth has also died. He had been a previously-announced infection.

Overall, five deaths are King County residents and one death a Snohomish County resident. Of the 12 other reported, confirmed infections, 10 are King County residents and two are from Snohomish County.

Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington on Sunday said they had evidence the virus may have been circulating in the state for up to six weeks undetected — a finding that, if true, could mean hundreds of undiagnosed cases in the area.

In Kirkland, city officials announced that now 27 of their firefighters and two of their police officers are in quarantine as they had been responding to the Kirkland LifeCare Center over the past week.

U.S. Coronavirus Outbreak Widens: Rhode Island confirms its first case of the virus, while number of cases in King County, Wash., rises to six.

New cases of the novel coronavirus in Washington, California and Rhode Island on Sunday raised fears of a wider spread of the disease in U.S. communities, prompting federal officials to ramp up efforts to test for and fight the widening outbreak.

Health officials are focused on a cluster of confirmed cases in Washington state where some patients had no clear path to exposure, including the first death from the virus in the U.S. Those cases, and several others in Oregon and California signal that there might be wider spread of the virus in some American communities with many cases still undiagnosed.

Washington state declares emergency after first patient dies from coronavirus in US

Washington state declared a state of emergency Saturday only hours after a man in his 50s with underlying health problems was identified as the first person in the U.S. to die from the coronavirus outbreak.

Washington state public health officials said two additional confirmed cases of the virus are associated with a longterm care facility in the state. Officials said 27 patients and 25 staff members at the Life Care Center of Kirkland had reported symptoms similar to the coronavirus. The facility has 108 residents and 180 employees.

The two additional cases include a facility staff worker in their 40s, who was in satisfactory condition, and a facility resident in their 70s, who was in serious condition.

The patient who died was identified by state and county health officials as a man in his 50s. The patient was being treated at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland, Washington, with serious respiratory issues, according to hospital spokesperson Julia Irwin.

Coronavirus spreads to Washington nursing home

One of the patients, a woman in her 70s, is in serious condition, said Jeff Duchin, Seattle and King County health officer. The other patient is a woman in her 40s who is health care worker at the facility, Life Care Center of Kirkland…………

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sending a team of experts to help local officials investigate the cases. Officials have already found that 27 of 108 residents at the nursing home report some symptoms of respiratory illness, Duchin said, and 25 of the 180 staff do, too. Health officials are investigating these cases but they don’t yet know if the people are sick with coronavirus.

Person dies from coronavirus in Washington state, first in the US, health officials say

Sources in Washington state had heard of this report last night, but as it was unconfirmed at the time, I didn’t post it. Not that this should have been an unexpected thing.

Health officials in Washington confirmed Saturday that one person has died from coronavirus, marking the first disease-related death in the U.S.

Seattle and King County Public Health officials issued a vague media advisory announcing the first COVID-19 death in the U.S., adding that there was an undisclosed number of new cases as well.

News of the death comes on the heels of three new cases in California, Oregon and Washington in which the patients were infected by unknown means. They had not recently traveled overseas or had come into contact with anyone who had.

President Donald Trump said during a press conference Saturday that 22 people in the U.S. have been stricken by the new coronavirus and that additional cases are “likely.”

“Unfortunately, one person passed away overnight,” Trump said.

“She was a wonderful woman a medically high-risk patient in her late 50s. Four others are very ill. Thankfully 15 are either recovered fully or they’re well on their way to recovery. And in all cases, they’ve been let go in their home.

2 new coronavirus cases emerge in Washington, in King and Snohomish counties

Here you go Bob.

SHORELINE — Two new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Washington, in a King County woman and a Snohomish County teenager, state and local officials said Friday night.

The woman had recently been to South Korea, a country affected by the outbreak. But the Snohomish County patient, a high school student, did not recently travel to any countries affected by SARS-CoV-2, the official name of the novel coronavirus, said Snohomish Health District officer Dr. Chris Spitters.

“It’s concerning that this individual did not travel, since this individual acquired it in the community,” Washington state health officer Dr. Kathy Lofy told reporters Friday at a news conference at the Department of Health Shoreline. “We really believe now that the risk is increasing.”

Both cases are considered “presumptive positive,” as test results were confirmed at the Shoreline site Friday, but are also being sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for confirmation. A case awaiting confirmation by the CDC was also reported Friday in Oregon.

The case in Oregon, two in California and the new Snohomish County case do not appear linked to travel to a country affected by the outbreak.

The Snohomish County student, who attends Henry M. Jackson High School in Mill Creek, became ill Monday with a fever, body aches and a headache, and visited two clinics in the county this week, Spitters said.

Because he was feeling better, he returned to school Friday morning, but after his tests came back positive, he went home before attending class…………

The King County patient is a woman in her 50s, said Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, health officer at Public Health – Seattle & King County. She returned to Washington from South Korea on Feb. 23 and worked for one day before developing symptoms, Duchin said. Her husband then called county health officials to report her symptoms and travel history.

She did not interact with the public during her workday, Duchin said, and is recovering at home “without complications.” A workplace investigation is underway.

Her husband has not shown any symptoms. He is also under home quarantine………

The 35-year-old Snohomish County man who was the United States’ first patient confirmed to have the virus is considered fully recovered. He had recently visited Wuhan, China, where the global outbreak began in December.

Two New Community-Spread Coronavirus Cases Found In Northern California, Oregon

That second case I posted the article about earlier? Now there’s a third.

On Friday evening, authorities confirmed that two people – a woman from Santa Clara County, California, and a patient from Washington County, Oregon – had contracted coronavirus from unknown sources within the community.

According to The Washington Post, the woman from Santa Clara County, in Northern California, is 65-years-old and has not recently traveled outside the country. The patient tested positive for coronavirus on Friday, according to “people familiar with the case.”

The second case, which has occurred in an unknown individual from Washington County, Oregon, was confirmed by state health authorities, reports the news agency. The patient, who is an adult and currently at Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro, Oregon, didn’t have contact with other people known to have the coronavirus, and had not recently traveled outside the country.

The two cases confirmed Friday night represent the second and third community spread cases that have been found in the United States. The first case, a person from Solano County, California, was the first confirmed instance of community-spread coronavirus in the United States, and the patient is currently at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California.

The two California cases have occurred within 100 miles of Travis Air Force Base in Northern California, where some of the 400 U.S. citizens aboard the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship were for quarantine. As of Thursday evening, six passengers from the cruise ship out of the 3,711 people on board have died, including five Japanese citizens and a British citizen, reports Forbes.