Four new deaths from the novel coronavirus have been reported in Washington state—bringing the U.S. death toll to six.
The disease has killed more than 3,000 people globally and infected almost 89,000, with the vast majority of cases and deaths in China.
While the number of new cases recorded daily in that epicenter country has declined for weeks, the virus continues spreading fast in South Korea, Iran and Italy, prompting increased travel warnings and restrictions.
News of the additional deaths came after Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC News today that the disease had now reached ‘outbreak proportions’ as 91 cases were confirmed across the U.S.
‘We’re dealing with an evolving situation. We’re dealing with clearly an emerging infectious disease that has now reached outbreak proportions and likely pandemic proportions,’ Fauci said. ‘If you look at multiple definitions of what a pandemic is… multiple sustained transmissions of of a highly infectious agent in multiple regions of the globe.’
Fauci went on to say the U.S. might need to consider social mitigation, including closing down schools and not allowing events where large crowds are in confined spaces.
‘We’re not ready for it right now but we need to be at least thinking about the possibility,’ he said.
Over the weekend, health officials reported the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in Florida, New York and Rhode Island.
“Florida has 2 presumptive positive #COVID19 cases,” the Florida Department of Health says via Twitter. “One adult resident of Hillsborough County and one adult resident of Manatee County. Both individuals are isolated and being appropriately cared for.”
The New York case involves a woman in her 30s who had recently traveled to Iran and is now isolated in her home. While she has symptoms of COVID-19, she is not in serious condition and “has been in a controlled situation since arriving to New York,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
In the Rhode Island case, the patient “is in their 40s and had traveled to Italy in mid-February,” the Rhode Island Department of Health said. It added that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to trace people who were on the patient’s return flight to the U.S.
The coronavirus illness is likely to continue to spread in the United States, health officials say. In a sign of that, cases of “community spread” — among people with no history of travel to affected areas or contact with people known to be infected — have now been reported in California, Washington state and Oregon.
Health officials expect more coronavirus cases to be reported in the U.S., as more labs across the country add the ability to test for the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
COVID-19’s most common symptoms include fever, shortness of breath and a dry cough, the World Health Organization says. And in most cases, people don’t develop a serious illness.
“Most patients (80%) experienced mild illness,” the World Health Organization said in a recent update on the coronavirus. “Approximately 14% experienced severe disease & 5% were critically ill.”
There are currently about 90,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the world. Of that number, slightly more than half — nearly 45,400 people — have recovered from the virus. But more than 3,000 people have died.