Via seattlepi.com: COVID-19 linked to 2 more deaths; 27 cases statewide, 9 deaths. Excerpt:
Health officials announced on Tuesday that Washington had 27 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, nine of which resulted in death; there were seven more in King County than on Monday.
Some deaths have been retroactively linked to COVID-19, the novel coronavirus that spread in parts of Washington, including a death on Feb. 26 at Harborview Medical Center, before the first cases of the novel coronavirus were announced in King County.
The man was a 54-year-old resident of Kirkland Life Care, a nursing and rehabilitation facility, which was been linked to a majority of the cases announced between Friday and Monday. He was brought to the Seattle hospital on Feb. 24, and died two days later, according to a Harborview spokeswoman.
The governor of North Carolina announced Tuesday that the state's first confirmed case was also linked to Life Care as someone from Wake County traveled to Washington, visited the facility and flew back to North Carolina where they were tested.
As of Tuesday, King County had 21 confirmed cases of COVID-19, eight of which resulted in deaths. Snohomish County had six confirmed cases, one of which resulted in death. While there have been people tested in other counties, there were not any confirmed cases outside King and Snohomish counties.
According to King County Public Health, the seven new cases include:
• A woman in her 40s who worked at Life Care. She was never hospitalized and was recovering at home.
• A woman in her 60s who was a family member of a confirmed case of COVID-19. She was not hospitalized.
• A man in his 70s who was a frequent visitor of Life Care. His hospitalization status was unknown currently.
• Two men in their 20s who were hospitalized at Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah. It was not known how they were exposed.
• A woman in her 80s who was a resident of Life Care. She was never hospitalized and died at her family home on Feb. 26.
• A man in his 50s who was resident of Life Care and hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center. He died on Feb. 26 and was believed to be the earliest confirmed death in the U.S. due to the virus.
Those numbers are up since Monday, when local health officials announced the total number of cases of COVID-19 was up to 14 in King County. Out of those, five had died as of Monday. Numbers are expected to continue rising as testing increases and could diagnose people retroactively.
King County Executive Dow Constantine announced an emergency declaration at the news conference, which would help allocate resources to respond to further cases. Later in the day, Gov. Jay Inslee announced that health officials were asking the State Legislature for $100 million to help respond to COVID-19.
Constantine said a motel was being purchased by the county to house isolated patients. Using modular homes already owned by the county to house patients was another option the executive brought up.
The announcement came within 72 hours of the first confirmed case on Friday in King County.
