几个华盛顿州的卫生机构周六下午证实，该国发生了首例冠状病毒死亡，并且在该地区发现了多起新的冠状病毒病例。
金县公共卫生部和华盛顿卫生部周六证实了美国首例COVID-19死亡病例。公共信息官员杰米·尼克松向几家新闻媒体证实，一名患者死于冠状病毒相关感染。截至周六上午，美国疾病控制和预防中心已确诊至少64例病例，但全球已确诊病例超过85，000例。
华盛顿州公共卫生部门的几名金县和西雅图地区的医生写道:“[有几个人被确认感染，其中一人死亡。”通告周日。
包括华盛顿、加利福尼亚和俄勒冈州在内的几个州的卫生官员警告至少有四例病例发生在从未出过美国的病人身上，他们无法确认病毒的来源。美国联邦药品管理局周六宣布，将在西海岸三个州加快COVID-19的实验室检测确认的与冠状病毒疾病治疗相关的药物短缺。
唐纳德·特朗普总统在周六下午的新闻发布会上吹嘘说，他和副总统迈克·彭斯的特别工作组开展了“现代史上最激进的行动”来对抗冠状病毒的传播。
“这是一个艰难的过程，但是已经取得了很多进展。目前，美国有22名患者，不幸的是，一个人在一夜之间去世了，一个很棒的女人，一个50多岁的医学高危患者。另外4人非常愿意，谢天谢地，还有15人正在康复，已经被释放，”特朗普说。他指出，疫苗和包括口罩在内的“大量物资”正在美国分发
疾控中心官员后来被告知记者称，第一名受害者实际上是一名50多岁的男子，而不是特朗普和彭斯之前描述的女性。
特朗普补充道:“美国可能会出现更多病例，但健康的个体应该能够完全康复。”。“所以健康的人，如果你健康，你可能会经历一个过程，你会没事的。”
该疾病于去年12月首次在中国武汉出现，但很快就蔓延至全球60多个国家。韩国冠状病毒确诊病例数量位居第二，意大利周六成为首个确诊病例超过1000例的非亚洲国家。世界卫生组织官员周五宣布，仅在中国，就有2791名患者死于COVID-19疾病。在中国以外，已有68人死亡，包括华盛顿州的死亡人数。
华盛顿州长杰伊·因斯利周六下午发表了一份关于死亡的声明:“当我们得知一名华盛顿人死于COVID-19时，这是我们州悲伤的一天。我们同情他的家人和朋友。我们将继续努力，争取有一天没有人死于这种病毒。我们正与华盛顿州卫生部、华盛顿州应急管理部以及当地和社区卫生合作伙伴合作，加强我们的准备和应对工作。我致力于保持华盛顿人的健康、安全和知情。”
疾病预防控制中心的罗伯特·雷德菲尔德博士和卫生与公众服务部部长亚历克斯·阿扎也加入了彭斯的行列，宣布扩大对冠状病毒的旅行限制，包括前往意大利、伊朗和韩国。
“首先，总统今天授权采取行动，对伊朗增加额外的旅行限制。...彭斯说:“伊朗已经处于旅行禁令之下，但我们正在扩大现有的旅行限制，以包括任何在过去14天内访问过伊朗的外国人。”。“我们将增加到最高级别的咨询——即第4级——建议美国人:不要去意大利和韩国的特定地区旅行。我们敦促美国人不要前往意大利和韩国受冠状病毒影响最严重的地区。”
FIRST U.S. CORONAVIRUS DEATH CONFIRMED IN WASHINGTON STATE, MIKE PENCE ANNOUNCES NEW TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS ON IRAN
Several Washington state health agencies confirmed Saturday afternoon that the country's first coronavirus death occurred and that multiple new cases of coronavirus have been detected in the region.
King County Public Health and the Washington Department of Health confirmed the first U.S. death from the COVID-19 illness Saturday. Public information officer Jamie Nixon confirmed to several news outlets that a patient died as a result of a coronavirus-related infection. At least 64 cases have been confirmed inside the U.S. by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through Saturday morning, but more than 85,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide.
"[N]ew people were identified with the infection, one of whom died," wrote several King County and Seattle area doctors in a Washington State Public Health Department announcement Sunday.
Health officials in several states including Washington, California and Oregon warned that at least four cases occurred in patients who had never traveled outside the U.S. and they are unable to confirm the source of the virus. The Federal Drug Administration announced Saturday it is speeding up laboratory tests for COVID-19 in the three West Coast states and confirmed a drug shortage tied to the treatment of the coronavirus illness.
President Donald Trump in a Saturday afternoon press conference touted he and Vice President Mike Pence's task force for conducting "the most aggressive action in modern history" to confront the coronavirus spread.
"It's a tough one but a lot of progress has been made. At this moment, we have 22 patients in the U.S., unfortunately, one person passed away overnight, a wonderful woman, a medically high-risk patient in her late 50s. Four others are very will, thankfully 15 others are recovering and have been released," Trump said. He noted that vaccines and "tremendous amounts of supplies" including masks are being distributed in the U.S.
CDC officials later told reporters that the first victim was in fact a man in his late 50s and not a woman as Trump and Pence had earlier described.
"Additional cases in the United States are likely but healthy individuals should be able to fully recover," Trump added. "So healthy people, if you're healthy, you'll probably go through a process and you'll be fine."
The disease first emerged in Wuhan, China in December of last year but soon spread to more than 60 countries across the globe. South Korea has the second-highest amount of confirmed cases of coronavirus and Italy on Saturday became the first non-Asian country to top 1,000 confirmed cases. In China alone, 2,791 patients have died as a result of the COVID-19 illness, World Health Organization officials announced Friday. Outside of China, 68 people have died, including the death in Washington state.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee issued a statement Saturday afternoon regarding the death: "It is a sad day in our state as we learn that a Washingtonian has died from COVID-19. Our hearts go out to his family and friends. We will continue to work toward a day when no one dies from this virus. In partnership with the Washington State Department of Health, the Washington State Department of Emergency Management and local and community health partners, we are strengthening our preparedness and response efforts. I am committed to keeping Washingtonians healthy, safe and informed."
Pence was joined by Dr. Robert Redfield of the CDC and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Aza as he announced expanded travel restrictions over coronavirus, including to Italy, Iran and South Korea.
"First, the president authorized action today to add additional travel restrictions on Iran. ... Iran is already under a travel ban, but we're are expanding existing travel restrictions to include any foreign national who has visited Iran within the last 14 days," Pence said. "We are going to increase, to the highest level advisory — which is Level 4 — advising Americans: Do not travel to specific regions in Italy and South Korea. We are urging Americans to not travel to the areas in Italy and the areas in South Korea that are most affected by the coronavirus."
