Washington state authorities confirmed this afternoon that a person died from complications of the new coronavirus strain, COVID-19.
However, contrary to what President Donald Trump reported at a press conference, the victim was a man, not a woman.
The director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Robert Redfield, said on his Twitter account that the agency misidentified the patient as a woman during the press conference.
CDC erroneously identified the patient as a female in a briefing earlier today with the President and Vice President.
– Dr. Robert R. Redfield (@CDCDirector) February 29, 2020
The man was over 50 years old and suffered from previous medical conditions.
His death is the first death from this disease in the United States.
Here you can see the press conference of President Donald Trump here:
The CDC and the Washington health authorities plan to offer press conferences to discuss this death and the cases revealed in the last hours.
On Friday night, the CDC reported four possible new cases of COVID-19 coronavirus in the United States, two of which in the state of Washington, another in Oregon and one in California.
The four cases are still listed as “possible positive” pending further analysis, although patients are treated as if they were confirmed cases, the CDC said.
The governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, issued a statement saying that it is a “sad” day and that they are working for the time “when no one dies from this virus.”
In this regard, he said they are reinforcing the “preparation and response” and promised to keep the inhabitants of their state “healthy, safe and informed.”
This is the first death in the United States, where, if the probable cases announced last night are added, there are 66 people who were infected by this virus.
A good number of the first infected patients recovered, including that of the state of Washington that was released in January.
The US authorities were mobilizing on Saturday in a total prevention campaign against the COVID-19 directed by the vice president Mike Pence, just a few days after they claimed that the country would have minimal consequences for the new coronavirus.
Health officials rushed to have the coronavirus screening tests ready in all states, while the Trump administration said it could resort to a defense law 70 years ago to ensure the availability of protective equipment in case of Let the disease spread.
WHO raised the risk level for the virus to “very high” while continuing to spread worldwide.
On Friday afternoon, the State Department issued a notice to the Americans to avoid making any non-essential trip to Italy, which has registered 900 cases. A travel alert has already been issued for China.
Financial markets continued to fall, with the Dow Jones industrial average in its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis.
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