Associated Press
An increase in testing for the coronavirus began shedding light Monday on how the illness has spread in the United States, including among nursing home residents in one Washington state facility.
U.S. health officials updated the number of COVID-19 cases to 91 in 10 states after Oregon and Illinois announced new diagnoses. Seattle officials announced four more deaths, bringing the total in the U.S. to six.
King County Executive Dow Constantine declared an emergency and said the county was buying a hotel to be used as a hospital for patients who need to be isolated. He said the facility should be available by the end of the week.
“We have moved to a new stage in the fight,” he said.
Vice President Mike Pence met with the nation’s governors and pledged to continue updating them by teleconference on a weekly basis.
The nursing home cases especially troubled health care experts because of the vulnerability of sick and elderly people to the illness and existing problems in nursing facilities.
“It’s going to be a disaster,” said Charlene Harrington, who studies nursing homes at the University of California at San Francisco. Infection is already a huge problem in U.S. nursing homes because of a lack of nurses and training.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the case count includes 45 infections among people who were on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which is one more than previously reported. It also includes people who tested positive after returning from travel to outbreak areas in other parts of the world, their close contacts, and what appear to be infections from community spread — people who did not travel and did not have known contact with other infected people.
The CDC recently broadened its guidelines for who should be tested for the new virus to include people with symptoms but without a travel history to virus hot zones.
More testing will bring more confirmed cases, experts said, but they cautioned that does not mean the virus is gaining speed. Instead, the testing is likely to reveal a picture of the virus’ spread that was previously invisible.
In Seattle, schools and one skyscraper closed, but health experts cautioned that closures can have downsides.
On Monday, the F5 technology company said it was closing its 44-story tower in downtown Seattle after learning an employee had been in contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus. The employee tested negative, but company spokesman Rob Gruening said the tower was closed as a precaution.
