Los Angeles has recorded its first fatality in connection with the novel coronavirus, marking the fourth death in California.
A woman over the age of 60, who had traveled extensively in recent months, including a long layover in South Korea, was confirmed dead from the virus, Los Angeles health officials said on Wednesday.
Los Angeles County Public Health Department Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said that the woman who died had underlying conditions, and passed away shortly after being hospitalized.
The woman was not a resident of Los Angeles, but was in the area visiting friends, officials said.
Ferrer did not identify the woman and there was no other information immediately available about her.
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer (above) said Wednesday that a woman over the age of 60 had become the city’s first coronavirus deaths
Los Angeles County on Wednesday also announced six new cases, bringing the total there to 27.
Nationwide, the fast-spreading epidemic has infected more than 1,000 and killed 32.
It is the fourth fatality attributed to coronavirus in California. On Tuesday, Sacramento County health officials announced that a patient in her 90s at an Elk Grove nursing home had died from the virus.
Elsewhere in California, one death each was reported over the past week in Santa Clara County and Placer County.
In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed banned all gatherings 1,000 or more people for the next two weeks in the city of 880,000, including Golden State Warriors basketball games.
California’s Santa Clara County, home to San Jose and Silicon Valley, did the same.
Los Angeles has yet to take any drastic measures in limiting public gatherings, but officials warned that emergency restrictions could soon be implemented.
In Seattle, which has been hardest hit by the outbreak, Washington Governor Jay Inslee prohibited activities involving more than 250 people.
The ban, encompassing an area of 4 million residents, applies to houses of worship and baseball’s Seattle Mariners, whose home games will be moved.
A student wears a face mask to protect against the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) as he leaves the campus of the UCLA college in Westwood, California on March 6, 2020
The all-out drive to encourage ‘social distancing’ – the new catchphrase amid the crisis – unfolded as infections in the U.S. topped 1,000.
The outbreak has spread to as many as 40 states, with Arkansas and New Mexico reporting their first cases of the virus.
‘Bottom line, it’s going to get worse,’ Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Capitol Hill.
As for how much worse, Fauci said that would depend on the ability of the U.S. to curtail the influx of travelers carrying the disease and state and community efforts to contain the outbreak.
He said if mild cases of the virus are counted, the mortality rate is probably about 1 percent – ‘roughly 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu.’
On Wall Street, investors endured another brutal day, with fears about the virus’ economic fallout driving stocks down about 5 percent on news that the World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic, or a serious global outbreak.
WHO noted that the number of cases outside China increased 13-fold over the past two weeks.
Designating the crisis a pandemic is WHO’s way of putting countries on notice to take more aggressive action against the virus, which has infected over 120,000 people worldwide and killed nearly 4,400.