Sixth Washington Death Suggests Coronavirus Is Spreading More Rapidly Than Expected In U.S.

Washington state officials are rushing to assess schools, medical centers, emergency workers and businesses for risk of infection after a sixth state resident died from the coronavirus. All the deaths are reportedly within King County. 

The county has a total of 14 known cases and six deaths. The first two victims were residents of the LifeCare Center nursing home in Kirkland. Six of the confirmed cases so far were elderly residents of LifeCare. All have underlying conditions and are in critical condition. Residents have been prompted to stay in their rooms. 

Most of the nursing home residents have underlying conditions and are extremely susceptible to respiratory illnesses. The home has a history of illness outbreaks and difficulty in following infection control precautions. 

The Seattle suburb is the center of fear as more and more residents and employees complain of illness. A fourth of Kirkland’s fire department has been quarantined because they had been to the home, and a nearby college campus is cleaning its campus because some students visited the facility.

The confusion and frenzy around the nursing home depicts just how little is known about the virus and how many people may have been affected. 

New York, Florida and Rhode Island have all reported their first coronavirus case. All cases have been linked to recent travel abroad. The national total of cases is 90 as of yet. 

Internationally, there’s been over 89,000 reported cases, including the first to be reported in the Dominican Republic and Scotland. There’s also been a recent spike in cases in Iran. More than 3,000 people have died globally, most of which have been in China.