Posted on 03/04/2020 8:57:16 PM PST by Mariner
SEATTLE (AP) — The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus climbed to 11 on Wednesday with a patient succumbing in California — the first reported fatality outside Washington state — as federal authorities announced an investigation of the Seattle-area nursing home where most of the victims were stricken.
Officials in California's Placer County, near Sacramento, said an elderly person who tested positive after returning from a San Francisco-to-Mexico cruise had died. The victim had underlying health problems, authorities said.
Washington also announced another death, bringing its total to 10. Most of those who died were residents of Life Care Center, a nursing home in Kirkland, a suburb east of Seattle. At least 39 cases have been reported in the Seattle area, where researchers say the virus may have been circulating undetected for weeks.
Seema Verma, head of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency is sending inspectors to Life Care along with experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to figure out what happened and determine whether the nursing home followed guidelines for preventing infections.
Last April, the state fined Life Care $67,000 over infection-control deficiencies following two flu outbreaks that affected 17 patients and staff. An unannounced follow-up inspection in June determined that Life Care had corrected the problems, Verma said.
Meanwhile, public officials in Washington came under pressure to take more aggressive steps against the outbreak, including closing schools and canceling large events. While the state and Seattle have declared emergencies, giving leaders broad powers to suspend activities, they have not issued any orders to do so.
(Excerpt) Read more at komonews.com ...
The have procured 160 "isolation modules" with trailers and a motel, say more is on the way.
Is their criteria for schools appropriate knowing kids seem impervious to the virus? And the State and County are recommending all vulnerable (old, compromised etc.) to just stay home.
I'm thinking they have it about right until/unless new information emerges, not on risk, but on real progression.
Was the cruise ship the Grand Princess ???
Just because no one under 15 has died doesn't mean they can't carry the virus to others. They probably can take the virus home from school and infect their grandparents.
Yes, the ship on a voyage to Hawaii with a stop in Mexico, has been ordered to return to port in San Francisco.
Those 160 isolation modules may not be just for Washingtonians, depending on how the disease spreads. Just don't let the State Department arrange transportation.
I am saying that Washington State has a big part in the Life Care Center’s climbing C-virus outbreak. Have they done proper isolation of sick victims? Have they tested possible sources that have exposed others? Are all the Life Care employees tested? It seems to me they have let this outbreak fall through the cracks.
The life care center I noticed a week ago. Seems what’s her name could have noticed it a week ago and sent someone up there.
It is a place for long term acute care. People who cannot get up and get around are there. None of the patients can get out and about, much less go on a cruise.
The virus was brought to them
That stop in Mexico would be the 3-4 hours the ship had to stop in Ensenada for the cruise to include at least one foreign port...
No passengers would have got off there...
Probably a child of one of the patients ...spending Mom’s money on a cruise while Mom vegetates out of sight in a nursing home...
Visits Mom once a month between cruises etc...
Brought the virus home to Mom and the other vulnerable old people...
Reports from Seattle are as suspect as reports from China and cannot be believed.
Seattle reports are Trump destroying propaganda
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