WASHINGTON: United States on Tuesday confirmed its sixth case of coronavirus fatality in the country as the virus took root in the country’s Pacific Northwest.
Worldwide, close to 3,100 people have succumbed to COVID-19 even as a clear shift in the crisis was emerging, with nine times as many cases recorded outside China as inside, according to the UN health agency.
Andorra, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Jordan, Latvia, Portugal, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia were among countries that confirmed their first cases, along with Senegal, which became the second sub-Saharan African country to do so.
The conflict-wracked region is feared to be particularly vulnerable because of its poor health infrastructure and crowded cities with inadequate sanitation.
All of the United States deaths have occurred in the state of Washington, where officials warned residents the battle against the disease was shifting from containment to mitigation.
“The risk for all of us of becoming infected will be increasing,” said Jeff Duchin, a health officer in King County where five of the deaths occurred. The district is home to Seattle, a city with a population of more than 700,000 people.
Earlier in the day, New York’s governor warned it was “inevitable” that the virus would spread in the global financial hub after its first confirmed case was detected in a health care worker who had visited Iran.
Donald Trump meanwhile was meeting with leading pharmaceutical companies at the White House to discuss efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine.
Despite its world class hospitals and medical professionals, the US is also viewed as vulnerable to an epidemic because of glaring disparities in its health care system, including nearly 28 million people without coverage.
With fears of a pandemic on the rise after the virus emerged in China late last year, the World Health Organisation urged countries to stock up on critical care ventilators to treat patients with severe symptoms.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a “window of opportunity” remained to contain the outbreak, noting that “more than 130 countries have not detected any cases yet.”
Read more: Coronavirus spreading fast outside China, Global toll crosses 3,100
