Person In Washington State First In U.s. To Die From Coronavirus

A person has died in Washington state of COVID-19, state health officials said Saturday, marking the first such reported death in the United States. State officials issued a terse news release announcing the death, gave no details and scheduled a news conference. Health officials in California, Oregon and Washington state worried about the novel coronavirus spreading through West Coast communities after confirming three patients were infected by unknown means. The patients — an older Northern California woman with chronic health conditions, a high school student in Everett, Washington and an employee at a Portland, Oregon-area school — hadn’t recently traveled overseas or had any known close contact with a traveler or an infected person, authorities said. Earlier U.S.