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Trump administration Saturday announced additional travel restrictions affecting Iran, Italy and South Korea in response to the coronavirus outbreak following the first death from the virus in the United States. Vice President Pence said the existing travel ban on Iran would extend to foreign nationals who had been in that country the past 14 days. The State Department also is increasing its warning advising Americans not to travel to parts of Italy and South Korea affected by the virus.
Right before the White House's news conference, health officials in Washington state confirmed that a person diagnosed with coronavirus in King County has died.
President Trump described the patient as a “wonderful woman” and a “medically high-risk patient” in her late 50s, at the news conference. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later said it had mistakenly described the patient's gender in a briefing to Trump and Vice President Pence, and local health officials clarified the deceased was a man with underlying conditions.
More coronavirus infections were reported from South Korea to France to Qatar on Saturday as health officials in Washington state, Oregon and California reported another worrying development: new cases among people who have not traveled recently to countries hit hard by the outbreak or come into contact with anyone known to have the disease, which public health officials refer to as community transmission.
Washington state on Saturday announced three new cases of the virus — including the person who died — with circumstances that suggest person-to-person spread in the community. The other patients were a health-care worker at a long-term nursing facility and a female resident in her 70s from the same center.
California has reported three cases of community transmission, two of which are in Santa Clara County and one of which is in Solano County. Illinois reported a third case Saturday but did not say how the person may have gotten the virus.
