March 1 coronavirus news

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Frank Riedo, Medical Director of Infection Control at Evergreen Health Hospital, speaks at a press conference following the first death of a King County resident due to novel coronavirus on February 29. A second death was confirmed in King County on March 1.

A second coronavirus death has been confirmed in King County, Washington, according to a press release from Seattle and King County Public Health.

The patient was a man in his 70s with underlying health conditions. He was hospitalized at Evergreen Health in Kirkland and died Saturday, the release said.

The man’s death is the second death in the US.

A total of five new presumptive positive cases of coronavirus were identified in California Sunday, according to health departments in three counties.

Two patients are health care workers from Alameda County and Solano County, according to a joint press release from two localities. Both are employees at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, California, according to the release. Vacaville is about 34 miles southwest of Sacramento.

The two patients came into contact with a community-acquired case currently hospitalized at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, the release said. The patients are currently in isolation at home.

These cases are pending confirmatory testing from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the release said.

The three other cases were identified in Santa Clara County, according to the county’s health department. The total number of cases in the county is now seven, the release said.

One of the cases in Santa Clara is a woman with chronic health issues who is hospitalized, the release said. Officials have not said how this person contracted the virus.

The other two cases are a husband and wife, the release said. Both are hospitalized and the husband has chronic health conditions. Both recently traveled to Egypt, the release said.

The US Health and Human Services Department has launched an investigation into a manufacturing defect in novel coronavirus tests created by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to an official at the agency.

The coronavirus tests were sent to labs across the United States but weren’t usable for weeks because of a flaw.

The agency is bringing together a team of non-CDC scientists “to better understand the nature and source of the manufacturing defect in the first batch of COVID-19 test kits that were distributed to state health departments and others.”

Food and Drug Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in a statement that the FDA worked with the CDC to identify the manufacturing issue with the tests and resolve it..

“FDA has confidence in the design and current manufacturing of the test that already have and are continuing to be distributed,” Hahn said. “These tests have passed extensive quality control procedures and will provide the high-level of diagnostic accuracy we need during this coronavirus outbreak.”

CNN has reached out to CDC for comment.

New York has confirmed its first case of novel coronavirus, according to a statement from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The patient is a woman in her late 30s, contracted the virus while traveling abroad in Iran, and is currently isolated in her home, Cuomo said.

“The patient has respiratory symptoms, but is not in serious condition and has been in a controlled situation since arriving to New York,” the statement reads.

Cuomo said approval for state-testing was granted on Saturday and the positive test was confirmed by New York’s Wadsworth Lab in Albany.  

“There is no cause for surprise – this was expected,” Cuomo said. “As I said from the beginning, it was a matter of when, not if there would be a positive case of novel coronavirus in New York.”

Cuomo added there’s no reason for “undue anxiety.”

“The general risk remains low in New York. We are diligently managing this situation and will continue to provide information as it becomes available,” he said.

The coronavirus death toll in mainland China increased by 42 Sunday, according to China’s National Health Commission (NHC). All the new deaths were in Hubei province.

The additional deaths bring the total death toll in mainland China to 2,912, the NHC said.

Confirmed cases in mainland China increased by 202. Of those cases, 193 were in Hubei province. That means there were nine new cases reported in the rest of mainland China outside of Hubei, according to the NHC.

Other deaths across the globe include:

The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China is now 80,026, bringing the global total to 88,443. A total of 44,462 patients in China have recovered and been discharged from hospital, the NHC said.

An American Airlines plane sits on the tarmac in South Carolina on March 1.

American Airlines has waived change fees for customers purchasing travel between March 1 and March 16, the airline announced in a statement Sunday.

On Saturday, the airline announced they were suspending operations between New York and Miami to Milan, Italy.

Twitter has suspended all non-critical business travel and events out of concern for coronavirus, the company announced in a blog post Sunday.

The blog post said they informed employees on February 29 of the travel suspension.

The company said its goal is to “reduce the risk that anyone at Twitter might contract or inadvertently spread the virus.”

A US Postal Service employee from a Seattle distribution center is among the six people who tested positive for novel coronavirus in King County, according to a USPS statement. 

The employees at the distribution center mainly work with automated equipment and do not have customer interactions, the statement read.

“We have been informed the current risk to other employees is low,” the statement read.

On Sunday, King County Public Health said it was “aware that the U.S. Postal Service is reporting that one of its employees was diagnosed with COVID-19.” This person was one of the cases already reported and is included in the six total cases currently in the county, according to a Seattle and King County Public Health release. The state has a total of eight cases, including the one fatality announced on Saturday.

Five additional cases of coronavirus were confirmed Sunday by Catalina Andramuno, Ecuador’s Minister of Health during a press conference in the capital city of Quito.

This brings the country’s total number of cases to six.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health said in a statement Sunday that a foreigner had tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases to two.

The person, who’s nationality hasn’t been announced, was taken to “an Isolation Hospital, and he is now receiving the necessary medical care.” the statement read.

Hong Kong has confirmed three additional cases of coronavirus, bringing the citywide total to 98, the city’s department of health said in a Sunday night statement.

The new cases involve a 71-year-old woman who is associated with a cluster of cases related to a Buddhist temple, as well as a couple in their 70s who had no travel history during the incubation period.

Four people have tested positive for coronavirus in Ontario, Canada, according to a press release from the Ontario government.

The first case is a man in his 50s who is a Toronto resident temporarily living in Vaughan. The man is the brother of a patient who traveled to Iran, the release said.

He is in self-isolation and has had no community exposure, according to the release. He was assessed and tested at Mackenzie Health Hospital in Richmond Hill Friday.

The second case is a man in his 40s who is the spouse of the York region’s first Iran travel-related case announced Saturday, according to the release.

He traveled with his wife and toddler but was asymptomatic on flights and later was tested and assessed at Mackenzie Health Hospital on Friday. He self-isolated at home before becoming symptomatic, the release said.

The third case is a man in his 60s who returned from Iran on February 23. He went to the hospital on Friday and was assessed and discharged the same day. He has been in self-isolation at home, the release said.

The fourth case is a woman in her 70’s from Newmarket who was in contact with a person who recently reported positive after traveling from Egypt, the release said. This new patient also traveled to Egypt and was tested and assessed at Southlake Regional Health Centre on Saturday. She is now in self-isolation, according to the release.

The total number of cases in Ontario is now 15, the release said.

The total Canada case count for coronavirus is 24, which includes the latest numbers from Ontario plus eight cases in British Columbia and one in Quebec.

Hazen High School in Renton, Washington, will be closed Monday after officials learned Sunday that a parent and student were “experiencing flu-like symptoms and were tested yesterday” for coronavirus.

“They are self-quarantined at home while awaiting results of the test,” said Damien Pattenaude, Renton Schools superintendent. “The parent works in the health care industry and became sick last Sunday. The student became sick Wednesday afternoon and did not attend school on Thursday or Friday.”

Officials decided to close the high school out of an abundance of caution, Pattenaude’s statement read. All after-school activities and sports tryouts are canceled as well.

Officials “immediately contacted Public Health Seattle & King County” after learning of the parent and student, Pattenaude’s statement read.

“We have mobilized our custodial staff to begin thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting Hazen. Additionally, we will contact the families of those students and staff that the student may have come into contact with last week,” Pattenaude’s statement read.

Renton is a suburb of Seattle. There are currently six coronavirus cases in King County and eight total in the state. 

Seven Redmond, Washington, medics are being quarantined after possible exposure to the novel coronavirus, according to a tweet from Redmond Police’s verified account.

The fire department said it was fully staffed and is responding to calls as usual.

Twenty-five firefighters and two police officers from the city of Kirkland are also under quarantine. The first responders who were quarantined had responded to calls for “various medical complaints” at the Life Care Center where two people were diagnosed Saturday, according to the city of Kirkland’s website.

“Firefighters are either under home quarantine or are utilizing a Kirkland fire station for quarantine,” the city’s website said.

Kirkland City Manager Kurt Triplett said none of the personnel who went to the Life Care Center are showing symptoms of coronavirus. “We hope they will be tested and cleared soon,” Triplett said.

Medical staff at the Red Cross hospital in Wuhan transfer a coronavirus patient on February 28.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Hubei province, China, has increased for two successive days after a period of decline, the World Health Organization said in its daily report on Sunday.

“WHO is monitoring the situation and working to understand its possible significance,” the report said.

The epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak is in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, and aggressive measures were taken in the province to contain the virus. On Wednesday, for the first time since the start of the outbreak, the number of new cases reported outside of China in a single day was larger than those reported inside China, WHO said.

Still, most of the new cases in China were in Hubei.

Dr. Liang Wannian, a senior official with China’s National Health Commission, said during a WHO press conference last week that despite “good news” of decreasing cases and deaths in Wuhan, “the current situation is still grim and complex.”

Hundreds of new cases were confirmed and suspected every day, he said, “which means that the epidemic situation has not yet been completely contained by us.”

Mexico confirmed a new case of coronavirus Sunday, bringing the total to five, said Jose Manuel Cruz Castellanos, the secretary of health in the Mexican state of Chiapas.  

The new case is a female student who was studying abroad in Italy, officials said. 

One nursing faculty member and 16 students from Lake Washington Institute of Technology were at the Life Care Center of Kirkland last week and may have been exposed to coronavirus, the school said.

Out of an “abundance of caution,” the college will be closed Monday and Tuesday to continue disinfecting and cleaning the campus, according to Morrison’s statement.

All large community and college events will be canceled for the week.

Racers ride during the Moto2 and Moto3 official testing session on February 28 at the Losail International Circuit in Doha, Qatar.

MotoGP, a world motorcycle racing competition, canceled the opening race of its top class in Qatar, scheduled for March 6-8, because of travel restrictions imposed after the coronavirus outbreak.

The Qatar Grand Prix for the Moto2 and Moto3 classes will be held since both series are already in the country for final pre-season tests, the statement said.

The American Physical Society has canceled their March meeting in Denver, Colorado, due to health concerns related to coronavirus, according to a statement from the society.

The society is a non-profit organization to advance the knowledge of physics. The US and other countries have issued Level 3 warnings, meaning travelers should reconsider going to countries that have a high number of coronavirus cases.

Full refunds of registration fees will be forthcoming, the statement read.