Florida reported Saturday that two elderly residents died after testing positive for the novel coronavirus following international travel. The Washington state health department reported 5 additional deaths in King County on Saturday — bringing the death toll in the U.S. to 19.
The big picture: Governments around the world are scrambling to contain the virus. COVID-19 has infected more than 105,000 people in 100 countries and territories, mostly in mainland China, which has seen a slowdown of new infections this past week. The global death toll has risen to more than 3,550....
Last 48 hours
- U.S. cases: There are now 19 reported deaths from the virus in the U.S., with the majority — 16 — located in Washington state, per data from Johns Hopkins and Florida and California state health departments.
- Two Floridians died after testing positive for the coronavirus following international travel, the state health department said on Saturday — marking the first deaths on the east coast.
- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency on Saturday, saying there are 76 confirmed cases in New York.
- There are now at least 400 cases in more than 25 states, with the newest reports in New York, Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Maryland, New Jersey and Tennessee. Colorado public health officials are monitoring at least 8 presumptive cases. The CDC is counting confirmed and presumptive cases that individual state health departments are tracking.
- Diagnostics: Public health labs have used CDC tests — manufactured by Integrated DNA Technologies (IDA) — on over 3,500 specimens from 1,583 patients, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn told reporters at an off-camera press briefing on Saturday, per the FDA's briefing transcript.
- The federal government doesn’t know how many individual Americans have been tested for the virus, Hahn told reporters, per Bloomberg. The CDC has shipped enough tests to cover 75,000 people, Hahn said.
- There were "manufacturing problems with the CDC test," Hahn said on Saturday — so the FDA and the CDC are using a third-party manufacturer, IDA, to create tests for state public health labs and commercial distribution to non-public health labs, including academic medical centers and community hospitals.
- Health insurers and regulators are working to make sure that coronavirus diagnostic tests will be covered — but that doesn't necessarily mean coronavirus treatment will be affordable. Concerns linger on how the health