A patient infected with the novel coronavirus Covid-19 has become the first person to die from the illness in the United States of America.
The Department of Health in Washington State has today (29 February) confirmed that the male patient died in King County.
Advert
In a statement, Governor Jay Inslee said: "It is a sad day in our state as we learn that a Washingtonian has died from Covid-19.
"Our hearts go out to his family and friends. We will continue to work toward a day where no one dies from this virus."
A press conference has been scheduled for later on today (1PM local time). Further details will be made available then.
This death comes after the news broke on Friday night that two more people had been infected with the illness in the King County and Snohomish County area of the state.
Advert
Those two patients had initially tested positive locally for the illness, which has been causing havoc around the world for weeks now, but the test results had not yet been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As of earlier today, there have been 67 cases of patients infected with the virus in the US, most of whom were flown back in from the stricken cruise ship Diamond Princess.
Across the globe, the virus is confirmed to have infected at least 85,055 people and 2,922 people have died, of which 2,835 have been Chinese.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organisation had 'increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of Covid-19 to very high at a global level'.
Advert
He added: "The continued increase in the number of cases, and the number of affected countries over the last few days, are clearly of concern."
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: World News, US News, Health