US coronavirus death toll rises to six, all in Washington state
03 March, 2020
The number of United States deaths from the novel coronavirus rose to six on Monday, all in the state of Washington, officials said, signaling the contagion has taken root in the Pacific Northwest.
US Vice President Mike Pence announced cure for the disease could possibly be available by summer or early fall, but a vaccine was farther off.
Pence, the administration's pointman for the crisis, also said the federal government was moving to screen 100 percent of passengers flying in from Italy and South Korea, two serious virus hot zones.
Five of the six American fatalities have been from King county, the most populous in Washington state and home to Seattle, a city greater than 700,000 people. The sixth victim was from neighboring Snohomish county, officials said.
"The risk for all those of becoming infected will be increasing," said Jeff Duchin, a health officer in King County.
"Although almost all of the cases will be mild or moderate, the infection could cause serious disease and there's a prospect of many people to be ill at the same time."
The state reported four new cases, three from the same nursing home, taking the full total number folks cases to more than 90 - about 50 % of which were persons repatriated from either China or a virus-stricken cruise ship off Japan.
Dow Constantine, the very best official in King County, said his office was in talks to get a motel where to place people who required isolation, adding: "We have to move to a fresh stage in the fight to contain, mitigate and manage this outbreak."
Pence told reporters at the White House that treatments "could literally be available by this summer, or early fall."
He was likely discussing the drug remdesivir, an antiviral drug produced by the pharmaceutical firm Gilead that has already been used to take care of one US patient and was moving toward two final stage expansive clinical trials in Asia.
There are many vaccines and treatments under development, but remdesivir may be the closest to advertise availability.
Pence added that US pharmaceutical companies had formed a consortium to interact and share information to build up these drugs.
New travel protocols "will make certain that anyone traveling on a primary flight to the United States of America receives multiple screenings at all airports in Italy and South Korea," he said.
Italy has already established 1,700 cases and South Korea has had 4,000.
The United States can be drastically expanding its diagnostic efforts after coming under fire for not testing enough.
"The estimates that we're getting from industry right now, by the end of the week near a million tests can be performed," said Food and Drug Administration chief Stephen Hahn.
In NY, Governor Andrew Cuomo warned it was "inevitable" that the virus would spread in the global financial hub following its first confirmed case was detected in a healthcare worker who had visited Iran.
"There is absolutely no doubt that you will see more cases. This is NY - we're a gateway to the world," Cuomo told reporters.
"People are going to test positive, not just a couple of or three or five, you will have many who test positive," he added.
Cuomo said the 39-year-old woman who tested positive at the weekend had mild symptoms and was recovering in isolation in the home. Her husband is however expected to test positive as well.
Globally, a lot more than 3,100 people have died therefore of the virus, almost all them in China. More than 90,000 people have already been infected, with cases registered in a lot more than 60 countries.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com