US death toll hits 11; California declares state of emergency

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus climbed to 11 on Wednesday with a patient succumbing in California — the first reported fatality outside Washington state — as federal authorities announced an investigation of the Seattle-area nursing home where most of the victims were stricken.

Officials in California’s Placer County, near Sacramento, said an elderly person who tested positive after returning from a San Francisco-to-Mexico cruise had died. The victim had underlying health problems, authorities said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency. Washington and Florida had already declared emergencies.

Washington also announced another death, bringing its total to 10. Most of those who died were residents of Life Care Center, a nursing home in Kirkland, a suburb east of Seattle. At least 39 cases have been reported in the Seattle area, where researchers say the virus may have been circulating undetected for weeks.

Seema Verma, head of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency is sending inspectors to Life Care along with experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to figure out what happened and determine whether the nursing home followed guidelines for preventing infections.

Last April, the state fined Life Care $67,000 over infection-control deficiencies following two flu outbreaks that affected 17 patients and staff. An unannounced follow-up inspection in June determined that Life Care had corrected the problems, Verma said.

Meanwhile, public officials in Washington came under pressure to take more aggressive steps against the outbreak, including closing schools and canceling large events. While the state and Seattle have declared emergencies, giving leaders broad powers to suspend activities, they have not issued any orders to do so.

“We have encouraged people who are responsible for large gatherings to give consideration whether it really makes sense to carry those on right now,” Gov. Jay Inslee said. “Right now, we are deferring to the judgment … of these organizations.”

While some individual schools and businesses have shut down, the governor said large-scale school closings have not been ordered because “there are so many ramifications for families and businesses,” especially for health care workers who might not be able to go to work because of child care responsibilities.

Local and state health officials have not recommended school closings unless the schools have had a confirmed case of the disease.

WHO raises death rate

WHO said the death rate from COVID-19 was about 3.4%, making it more fatal than the common flu, though data suggest it’s not as easy to catch.

WHO said about 3.4% of people infected with the COVID-19 virus globally have died, making it more fatal than the common flu. The figure was a bit of a surprise, since a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine assessing data from more than 30 Chinese provinces estimated the death rate was 1.4%.

Death rates in outbreaks are likely to skew higher early on as health officials focus on finding severe and fatal cases, missing most milder cases. WHO says the majority of people with the new coronavirus experience only mild symptoms and do not require any treatment.

As of Wednesday morning, there had been 3,214 deaths and 94,261 cases reported, according to the Johns Hopkins website. Mainland China had 80,270 cases with 5,621 in South Korea, 2,922 in Iran and 2,502 in Italy.

1 death in California; 6 new cases in LA County

Late Wednesday morning, officials in Auburn, California, said a person had died from the diease, making it the state’s first fatality. No other information about the newly reported death was immediately available.

Six new cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in Los Angeles County, where there was one previously, officials said Wednesday.

All of the cases confirmed Tuesday night were due to a known exposure and not the result of so-called community transmission, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of the county Department of Public Health, told a press conference.

One person was hospitalized and five others were in self-quarantine at home, she said. Officials have tested more than two dozen people for the virus since January and most tests came back negative.

Statewide, more than 50 people have tested positive for COVID-19, including several who got it through community transmission, according to the California Department of Public Health. More than 500 people have been tested for the virus.

Wait for hospital in S. Korea

In Daegu, the South Korean city at the center of that country’s outbreak, a shortage of hospital space meant about 2,300 patients were being cared for in other facilities while they awaited a hospital bed. Attending a meeting on quarantine strategies in Daegu, Prime Minister Chung Se-Kyun assured his country, saying “We can absolutely overcome this situation. … We will win the war against COVID-19.”

South Korea reported 435 new infections Wednesday, far smaller than its high of 851 a day earlier.

A total of 5,621 people in South Korea have contracted the virus and 32 have died.

45 deaths in Italy on Tuesday

Italy reported 45 fatalities Tuesday, bringing its total to 79. The outbreak in Italy has been concentrated in the northern region of Lombardy, but fear over the virus’ spread led even the Vatican to insist Pope Francis was not infected.

The pontiff became ill last week, but the Vatican said Francis only had a cold.

Later in the day, the Italian government ordered all sporting events to take place without fans until April 3 because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Controls placed on medical supplies

The expanding problem in Europe and beyond has led some governments to try to control supplies of necessities. The governments of the Czech Republic, Russia and Germany announced bans Wednesday covering various protective gear like masks.

India, meantime, tightened the export of 26 key drug ingredients used in pharmaceutical manufacturing, a potentially disruptive move taken as its caseload rose to 28 Wednesday from an earlier tally of just 5.

China reported 119 new cases Wednesday, all but five in the outbreak’s epicenter of Wuhan. In a sign of the shifting threat, Beijing’s health commissioner said two new cases in the Chinese capital were apparently infected abroad, in Iran and Italy.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency said Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, was expected to gradually shut down its hastily built temporary hospitals, where thousands of beds were empty.

“We believe this decline is real,” WHO outbreak expert Maria Van Kerkhove said of China. The country has reported 80,270 infections and 2,981 fatalities. It has about 85% of the world’s cases and 95% of deaths from the COVID-19 illness.

No talk of delaying Toyko Olympics

Despite worldwide concern and speculation about whether the fast-spreading virus outbreak will affect the Tokyo Olympics, the IOC’s leadership is not joining in the debate.

“Neither the word cancellation nor the word postponement was even mentioned,” International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach told a news conference Wednesday about the second day of executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Bach sought to project calm assurance after holding a conference call with local organizers. In Tokyo, officials then briefed local media, some of whom wore protective masks.

Asked how he could be so confident the July 24-Aug. 9 Olympics will go ahead as scheduled, Bach replied: “Because we talk to the experts.”

Global markets mixed

Global stock markets were mixed Wednesday after Wall Street sank despite an emergency U.S. interest cut aimed at defusing fears the virus outbreak might stunt global economic activity.

London opened lower while Germany advanced. Shanghai gained, Sydney and Hong Kong declined and Tokyo was little-changed.

Seoul’s benchmark surged 2.2% after the government announced a spending package to pay for medical supplies and aid to businesses hurt by the virus.

Markets appeared to be unimpressed by a pledge Tuesday from the Group of Seven major industrialized countries to support the global economy that included no specific measures.

On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index tumbled 2.8% despite the Federal Reserve’s surprise 0.5% rate cut. It was the index’s eighth daily decline in nine days.

China, Australia and other central banks also have cut rates to shore up economic growth in the face of anti-virus controls that are disrupting trade and manufacturing. But economists warn that while cheaper credit might encourage consumers, rate cuts cannot reopen factories that have closed due to quarantines or lack of raw materials.

“Despite the Fed cutting rates in support of the U.S. market, fear had clearly returned to reign in the markets,” Jingyi Pan of IG said in a report.

Tensions escalate in US

Tensions over how to contain the coronavirus escalated Tuesday in the United States as the death toll climbed to nine and lawmakers expressed doubts about the government’s ability to ramp up testing fast enough to deal with the crisis.

All of the deaths have occurred in Washington state, and most were residents of a nursing home in suburban Seattle. The number of infections in the U.S. overall climbed past 100, scattered across at least 15 states, with 27 cases in Washington alone.

“What is happening now in the United States may be the beginning of what is happening abroad,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noting that in China, where the outbreak began more than two months ago, older and sicker people are about twice as likely to become seriously ill as those who are younger and healthier. Most cases have been mild.

The nursing home outbreak apparently seeded the first case in North Carolina, authorities said. A Wake County resident who had visited the Washington state nursing home tested positive but is in isolation at home and is doing well, according to the North Carolina governor’s office.

In suburban Seattle, 27 firefighters and paramedics who responded to calls at the nursing home were tested for the virus Tuesday using a drive-thru system set up in a hospital parking area.

Thirty-year-old firefighter Kevin Grimstad took care of two patients Jan. 29 at Life Care Center in Kirkland. He is among 10 from the Kirkland Fire Department who developed symptoms after calls to the nursing facility.

Grimstad, his wife and 6-month-old son have taken turns recovering from fevers, coughs and congestion. They’re all feeling better, but wish they knew more about the virus.

“It’s crazy. A couple of weeks ago, it seemed like a foreign thing and now we’re getting tested,” Grimstad said. “If I was exposed a month ago, the problem is more widespread than we know.”

Virus halts Muslim pilgrimage, Friday prayers

Fears over the new coronavirus outbreak in the Mideast disrupted the practice of Islam itself in the region on Wednesday, as Saudi Arabia banned its citizens and residents from performing the Muslim pilgrimage in Mecca and Iran canceled Friday prayers in major cities.

The Saudi decision expands a ban last week on foreigners visiting Mecca and Medina, home to the holiest sites in Islam. Meanwhile, authorities halted Friday prayers across all Iranian provincial capitals amid the country’s growing coronavirus outbreak.

Friday is the main congregational day of prayer in Islam, and traditionally an important event for Iran’s clerical rulers. Tehran and other areas had canceled Friday prayers last week over the outbreak.

Iran earlier announced that the new coronavirus has killed 92 people amid 2,922 confirmed cases across the Islamic Republic, the highest death toll in the world outside of China.

Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour announced the new figures at a news conference in Tehran, raising Iran’s death toll from the new illness to higher than Italy’s, where there has also been a serious spike in infections.

Facebook stepping up virus misinformation effort

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social network is stepping up its efforts to combat virus-related misinformation by giving the World Health Organization free advertising.

Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook account that the company is working with national health ministries and global organizations like the World Health Orgnization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF to get out timely and accurate information on the virus.

Zuckerberg said Facebook will also give “support and millions more in ad credits” to other unspecified organizations.

Facebook has previously taken other measures to fight virus hoaxes and misinformation, including removing false claims and conspiracy theories and showing users a pop-up directing them to the World Health Orgnization or their local health authority for the latest information.

More empty beds in Wuhan

A Beijing-based intensive care doctor now working in Wuhan — the city at the epicenter of China’s coronavirus outbreak — says designated hospitals in the city are seeing an increasing number of empty beds after a large number of virus patients were discharged.

Du Bin added, however, that there’s always the possibility of another spike in new cases.

Du said Wednesday that a major cause of deaths in younger patients may have been the prolonged application of certain high-dosage treatments that ended up causing more harm than good.

Cao Bin, a doctor specializing in respiratory research who is also currently in Wuhan, told reporters, “The war is not over.”

Cao said Chinese researchers have led initial clinical trials of two antiviral drugs and will soon share the results of the trials with the World Health Organization.

Germany, others ban medical equipment exports

Germany has joined several other countries in banning the export of medical equipment such as respiratory masks, gloves and protective suits in most cases.

Germany, like other nations, has faced a shortage of such equipment as concerns over the widening coronavirus outbreak have mounted. In Germany itself, 240 infections have been confirmed so far.

Germany’s interior ministry said Wednesday that exemptions from the export ban will be allowed only under strict conditions, such as for “concerted international aid actions.”

Russia’s government on Wednesday banned the export of masks, respirators and other protective gear along with anti-virus medicines until June 1. It also noted that the ban doesn’t cover humanitarian aid.

The Ministry for Industry and Trade said the move is intended to prevent an “artificial deficit” of protective goods, which are being increasingly sold abroad as global demand has soared.

The Czech government also said it is banning exports of respirators and will start regulating their sale at home, saying it needs them for health workers and others. The Czech Republic has five confirmed cases of the new virus.

Louvre open again

The Louvre Museum in France is open again after employees worried about catching the coronavirus agreed to return to work.

The Paris museum where Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting hangs had been closed since Sunday while employees fearing infection stayed off the job.

But Louvre staff members voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to resume work and the Louvre opened its doors in the afternoon.

India cases rise to 28

India says its number of confirmed coronavirus cases has jumped to 28, up from just five.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan says an earlier COVID-19 patient who had traveled to Italy led to the confirmation of six other infections. Another cluster of cases that emerged centered around a large group of Italian tourists who had entered India on Feb. 21.

India also announced Wednesday that it has imposed universal screening of all passengers on international flights.

Meanwhile, South Korea reported 435 new cases, pushing its total to 5,621 — the second-highest total after China.

James Bond movie released delayed

The release of the James Bond film “No Time To Die” has been pushed back several months because of global concerns about coronavirus.

MGM, Universal and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli announced on Twitter Wednesday that the film would be pushed back from its April release to November 2020.

The announcement cited consideration of the global theatrical marketplace in the decision to delay the release of the film. “No Time To Die” will now hit theaters in the U.K. on Nov. 12 and worldwide on Nov. 25.