Los Angeles/Seoul/Hubei :The US death toll from coronavirus infections rose to 11 on Wednesday as new cases emerged around New York City and Los Angeles, while Seattle-area health officials sought to allay anxiety and discourage social gatherings amid the nation's largest outbreak.
The first California death from the virus was an elderly person in Placer County, near Sacramento, health officials said. The person had underlying health problems and likely had been exposed on a cruise ship voyage between San Francisco and Mexico last month.
It was the first coronavirus fatality in the United States outside of Washington state, where 10 people have died in a cluster of at least 39 infections that have emerged through community transmission of the virus in two Seattle-area counties.
Although the Placer County patient who died was not believed to have contracted the virus locally, that case and a previous one from the San Francisco Bay Area linked to the same ocean liner have led health authorities to seek other cruise passengers who may have had close contact with those two individuals.
Hours after the person's death was announced, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency in response to the coronavirus, which he said has resulted in 53 cases across the nation's most populous state.
"The State of California is deploying every level of government to help identify cases and slow the spread of this coronavirus," Newsom said in a statement.
Six new coronavirus patients were confirmed in Los Angeles County, public health officials said on Wednesday. One was a federal contractor who may have been exposed while conducting medical screenings at Los Angeles International Airport, the US Department of Homeland Security reported.
Three others likely were infected while travelling recently to northern Italy, one of the areas hardest hit in the global outbreak. Of the six in Los Angeles County, only one has been hospitalized. The other five are recovering in home isolation.
The greater Seattle region represents the biggest concentration of cases detected in the United States from a virus that has killed more than 3,000 people worldwide, mostly in China, where the epidemic originated in December.
With most of the Seattle-area cases not linked to travel or exposure to people who might have been infected abroad, that means the virus has gone from being an imported phenomenon to taking up residence in Washington state, health officials say.
At least 18 cases, including six deaths, were connected to a long-term nursing facility for the elderly, called LifeCare Center of Kirkland, in a Seattle suburb.
'Distancing measures'
Seattle health authorities urged a number of measures for curbing further spread of the disease, including recommendations for anyone aged 60 and older and individuals with underlying chronic health problems or compromised immunity to stay home and away from large gatherings and public places.
They also urged companies to allow their employees to work from home as much as possible, stagger shifts to ease commuter congestion on public transportation and avoid large work-related gatherings when possible.
"The distancing measures that we're recommending are essential because we need to slow the spread of the disease to the point where we are able to continue to handle the load," said Patty Hayes, the public health director for Seattle and King County.
A growing number of US companies are adopting such steps. On Wednesday Microsoft Corp asked its employees in the Seattle region near its headquarters and in the San Francisco Bay Area to work from home if possible until March 25.
In New York state, the number of cases rose to 10 on Wednesday. Three family members and a neighbor of a lawyer who was previously identified as infected tested positive. The neighbor's wife and three of his children have also contracted the virus, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
About 1,000 people in suburban Westchester County, where the two families live, were under self-quarantine orders because of possible exposure, Cuomo said.
"We are, if anything, being overcautious," he said.
AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, said Wednesday that people in a group from New York that attended its 18,000-person policy conference in Washington, DC, this week potentially had been in contact with an individual who contacted the coronavirus before the conference.
Dozens of Congress members attended the conference, as well as Vice President Mike Pence
South Korea declares new 'special care zone'
South Korea declared a "special care zone" on Thursday around a second city hit hard by the coronavirus and the US military confirmed two new cases among relatives of its troops in the country, which is battling the biggest epidemic outside China.
Australia became the latest country to impose travel restrictions on South Koreans, with almost 100 nations now limiting arrivals from the East Asian country which reported 438 new coronavirus cases on Thursday for a total of 5,766.
The South Korean government declared a "special care zone" around Gyeongsan, a city of about 275,000 people 250 kms (150 miles) southeast of Seoul, promising extra resources such as face masks and warning people from travelling there.
Gyeongsan has seen a spike in new cases, including at a nursing home. Similar zones have been declared around neighbouring Daegu city and Cheongdo County.
Around 75% of all cases in South Korea are in and around Daegu, the country's fourth-largest city, where the flu-like virus that emerged from China late last year has spread rapidly through members of a religious group.
"Everyday is sad and tough like a war. But our Daegu citizens are showing surprise wisdom and courage," Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin told reporters on Thursday.
Officials said hospitals in the hardest hit areas were struggling to accommodate new patients. Daegu city officials said 2,117 patients were waiting for rooms in the city.
Dozens of newly commissioned military nurses were due to begin work in Daegu on Thursday, the health ministry said.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported three more deaths from the virus, bringing the total in the country to 35.
US Forces Korea (USFK) reported two new cases, for a total of six cases in soldiers, employees or people related to the roughly 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea.
Despite the new cases, USFK had resumed sending troops to bases in Daegu and surrounding areas, according to military newspaper Stars and Stripes.
Commanders believed the bases were protected from the outside population, and that the troop rotations were needed to maintain readiness in the face of continued threats from nuclear-armed North Korea, the newspaper reported.
Death toll crosses 3,000 in China
The death toll of coronavirus in China has crossed 3,000 with 31 new fatalities and the total number of confirmed cases jumped to over 80,400, while Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for undiminished vigilance, saying the situation in virus-hit Wuhan still remains severe despite positive progress.
China's National Health Commission said on Thursday that it received reports of 139 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection and 31 deaths on Wednesday on the Chinese mainland.
All the deaths were in the epicentre of the virus, Hubei Province and its capital Wuhan, which continued to be ground zero of the COVID-19.
Also on Wednesday, 143 new suspected cases were reported while the number of severe cases decreased by 464 to 5,952, the NHC said, adding that 522 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.
The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland have reached 80,409 by the end of Wednesday.
This included 3,012 people who have died of the disease, 25,352 patients still undergoing treatment and 52,045 patients who have been discharged.
Also on Wednesday, two imported cases (people arriving from abroad) of the novel coronavirus infection were reported on the mainland, all of which were in Zhejiang Province.
By the end of Wednesday, 20 imported cases have been reported, the commission said.
By the end of Wednesday, 104 confirmed cases, including two deaths have been reported in Hong Kong, 10 confirmed cases in Macao and 42 in Taiwan, including one death, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Forty-three patients in Hong Kong, nine in Macao and 12 in Taiwan have been discharged from hospital after recovery.
In Hubei province, from where the COVID-19 originated in December reported 134 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection and 31 new deaths on Wednesday, the local health commission said.
By the end of Wednesday, there have been 12,600 confirmed cases of the coronavirus outside China, with over 214 deaths, statistics from the World Health Organisation showed Thursday.
In the past 24 hours, 2,103 newly confirmed cases outside China have been reported and four new member states--Argentina, Chile, Poland and Ukraine--have reported cases of COVID-19, the state-run People's Daily reported.
Japan confirmed over 1,037 coronavirus cases, and so far 12 people have died due to the infection.
Italy reported a total of 107 deaths of the deadly coronavirus, taking the total number to 3,089.
In Iran, the deadly infection claimed 92 lives out of more than 2,922 cases.
France said that 21 new cases of COVID-19 had been identified with a total of 285 cases now diagnosed, of which 12 were cured and four have died.
