WASHINGTON
The governor of Washington declared a state of emergency on Saturday after the death of a man because of COVID-19, the first death of its kind reported in the United States. More than 50 people in a home for the elderly are sick and are being tested for the virus.
Governor Jay Inslee instructed state agencies to use “all the necessary resources” to prepare and respond to the outbreak of the new coronavirus. The declaration also authorizes the use of the Washington National Guard if necessary.
“We will continue working towards a day when no one dies from this virus,” the governor promised.
Health officials from California, Oregon and the state of Washington were worried about the spread of the new coronavirus in the communities of the west coast of the United States because the number of infected increases despite the fact that they have not visited an outbreak area and apparently they have not had contact with anyone who has been in one of those areas.
The man who died was between 50 and 60 years old, presented risk factors and apparently had not traveled or had contact with a known COVID-19 case, Washington state health officials said at a press conference. A spokeswoman for the EvergreenHealth Medical Center, Kayse Dahl, said the person died in medical facilities in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle.
Dr. Frank Riedo, medical director of Infection Control at Evergreen, said local hospitals are receiving people with severe coronavirus symptoms, but there are likely to be more cases in the community.
“This is the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
Health officials reported two cases of COVID-19 related to a home for the elderly in the same suburb, Life Care Center of Kirkland. This is a worker of the place of more than 40 years who is in satisfactory health conditions in a hospital and a woman over 70 years old who lives in the care center and was hospitalized in serious condition. Neither of them had traveled abroad.
“In addition, about 50 Life Care-related individuals were reported sick with respiratory symptoms or hospitalized with pneumonia or other respiratory conditions of unknown cause and are being tested by COVID-19,” according to Seattle and county officials. King “It is expected that there will be more positive cases.”
Amy Reynolds of the Washington State Department of Health said in a brief telephone interview that “we are dealing with a developing emergency situation.”
No one answered a phone call to Life Care, but Ellie Basham, its executive director, said in a statement that residents and employees are being monitored and those who have symptoms or have potentially been exposed were quarantined. The facilities have banned the entry of families, volunteers and vendors as a precaution, Basham added.
The increasing number of cases in California, the state of Washington and Oregon confuses the authorities since the infected people had not traveled abroad recently or had close contact with a traveler or an infected person.
The Santa Clara County Department of Public Health announced on Saturday in a press release that the case of a fourth person in the United States infected with the new coronavirus is about a woman who is “family contact” of a person who is hospitalized With the virus.
The woman has not been hospitalized and has no symptoms of any disease, according to the department.
The United States reports about 60 confirmed cases. Worldwide,
the number of people sick with the virus was around 83,000 on Friday, and there were more than 2,800 deaths, most of them in China. A 60-year-old American citizen died in Wuhan in early February.
At the University of California Medical Center, Davis campus, in California, at least 124 registered nurses and other health care workers were sent home for a “self-imposed quarantine” after a woman from Solano County carrying the virus was admitted to medical facilities, National Nurses United, a national union representing registered nurses, said Friday.
The case “emphasizes the vulnerability of the country’s hospitals to this virus,” said the union.
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The Associated Press journalists Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington; and Gillian Flaccus in Lake Oswego, Oregon, contributed to this office.
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