Coronavirus in the USA – Coronavirus Map, case counts and news – A novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 has spread to all continents except Antarctica, with the first U.S. case involving a 35-year-old man who had traveled to Wuhan, China, before returning to Washington State. He was confirmed to have the virus on Jan. 20, 2020. Since then, the virus (which causes the disease COVID-19) has spread to almost every state, with new cases emerging every day.

With West Virginia reporting its first case Tuesday (March 17), the virus has now hit all 50 U.S. states. About 6,362 people in the U.S. have been confirmed to have the virus, though many other cases may be undetected. Of those reported cases, 108 people have died, with 55 deaths in Washington, 13 in New York, 12 in California, 6 in Florida, 4 in Louisiana, 3 deaths in New Jersey, 2 deaths each in Colorado, Indiana and Virginia, and 1 death each in Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Nevada, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas. (Globally, about 197,496 cases have been confirmed, with 7,940 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins dashboard.)

The virus is profoundly reshaping American life. States across the country have banned large gatherings. Soccer games, concerts and conferences are canceled. Six Bay area counties in California announced a “shelter in place” order Monday (March 16) that will impact about 6.7 million people, who will be directed to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible beginning at 12:01 a.m. local time Tuesday (March 17) and lasting for the following three weeks, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Those counties include: San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda. Those who violate the “directive” could face misdemeanor fines, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said at a Monday news conference; though officials emphasized enforcement would be their final option only if other methods failed.

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This is not a full lockdown that would actually forbid those individuals from leaving their homes; people will be allowed to go to grocery stores, gas stations, drug stores and pharmacies. Restaurants and bars will be allowed to provide takeout and delivery only. And people will be able to walk outside, provided they stay 6 feet (1.8 meters) away from others.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday (March 17) that he is considering such a shelter-in-place order for the city.

USA CORONAVIRUS CASES

(Click state name to find more info for some states)
Alabama: 29
Alaska: 1
Arizona: 18
Arkansas: 22
California: 557+ (7 deaths)
Colorado: 160 (1 death)
Connecticut: 26
District of Columbia: 17
Delaware: 8
Florida: 71 (5 deaths)
Georgia: 121 (1 death)
Hawaii: 7
Idaho: 5
Illinois: 95
Indiana: 24
Iowa: 22
Kansas: 11 (1 death)
Kentucky: 21
Louisiana: 136 (3 deaths)
Maine: 17
Maryland: 57
Massachusetts: 197
Michigan: 65
Minnesota: 60
Mississippi: 21
Missouri: 5
Montana: 7
Nebraska: 18
Nevada: 35 (1 death)
New Hampshire: 17
New Mexico: 13
New York: 967 (10 deaths)
New Jersey: 98 (2 deaths)
New Mexico: 17
North Carolina: 38
North Dakota: 1
Ohio: 67
Oklahoma: 10
Oregon: 39 (1 death)
Pennsylvania: 69
Rhode Island: 20
South Carolina: 33 (1 death)
South Dakota: 10 (1 death)
Tennessee: 73
Texas: 79
Utah: 28
Vermont: 12
Virginia: 49 (1 death)
Washington: 904 (55 deaths)
West Virginia: 1
Wisconsin: 47
Wyoming: 3

Sources: Johns Hopkins dashboard, state health departments, NY Times, CDC, Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Where possible, these tallies include both positive and presumptive positive cases.

Nursing homes and hospitals are banning visitors, to protect those most vulnerable to COVID-19. Airports are in pandemonium after enhanced screening measures for those returning from Europe went into effect. More than 30 states have closed all public schools for weeks. Hospitals are preparing for a tsunami of patients, canceling elective procedures, repurposing their facilities for coronavirus patients, and adding extra beds. And the specter of COVID-19 finally reached the White House; President Donald Trump was tested after he had contact with a confirmed positive case. He tested negative.

Late Friday (March 13), Congress passed a bill meant to help those who have been affected by coronavirus. The bill expands access to free testing, expands sick leave for those who are most vulnerable, and provides food aid. Trump also declared a national emergency. And on Tuesday (March 17) Trump said he is requesting $850 billion in emergency stimulus help slow the freefall of the economy due to coronavirus, the Washington Post reported.

On Monday (March 16), Trump recommended that people work from home, stay out of school, avoid restaurants, bars and avoid all gatherings of more than 10 people, though he kept short of enforcing it. The president has also suspended all travel from Europe to the U.S. for the next 30 days.

Though there are nearly 5,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., the true number of cases could be higher. As of March 13, Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, estimated there were between 10,000 and 40,000 cases of COVID-19 in the United States, and would be more now. (That number is based on rough estimates and has not been through peer review.)

The spread of the new coronavirus could be picking up steam in the U.S., as more people in regions highly impacted by the virus (such as the Pacific Northwest) are reporting what are called influenza-like illnesses (ILIs), or those cases that include a fever over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius), in addition to a cough or sore throat. Since these individuals are testing negative for influenza, they could instead have COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, Live Science reported March 15.

Limited testing

Though President Trump said March 7 that “anyone who wants a test can get a test,” the United States’ limited testing capacity means that in practice, only a fraction of people who have symptoms are being tested. Alex M. Azar II, secretary of the Health and Human Services, clarified that a doctor or other medical professional must first approve the testing, The New York Times reported.

Adm. Brett P. Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, said at a White House briefing Monday (March 16) that 1.9 million COVID-19 tests would be available by the end of the week. Giroir said that number will be reached, in part, as high-speed machines at 2,000 private labs come online. Those machines can run several samples at once, The New York Times reported.

As of March 14, 84 state and local public health laboratories in 50 states and the District of Columbia have working COVID-19 diagnostic tests, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced. As of Monday afternoon (March 16), the CDC and public labs in the U.S. had tested 25,162 specimens; that doesn’t equate to that many individuals tested, as labs may run two tests per person to confirm an infection.

However, on Friday, Deborah Birx, a member of the president’s coronavirus task force, said that the U.S. had granted emergency authorization for Roche holdings to release its automated test, which should rapidly scale up the ability to conduct testing.

Meanwhile, other headwinds face efforts to scale up testing. Lab directors are worried that they may run out of swabs, reagents and RNA extraction kits needed for mass testing, The New York Times reported. Because many countries are fighting cases in their country, competition for those supplies has increased.

Frontline health care workers hit

Two emergency room (ER) doctors have tested positive for COVID-19 and are in critical condition, Dr. William Jaquis, the president of the American College of Emergency Physicians announced on Saturday (March 14). One is a man in his 40s in Washington state; another is a 70-year-old physician, James Pruden, in Paterson, New Jersey, who was leading the emergency preparedness plan at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center.

“I am deeply saddened by this news, but not surprised,” Jaquis wrote in the statement. “As emergency physicians, we know the risks of our calling. We stand united with our colleagues and our thoughts and prayers for a full and speedy recovery are with each of them and their families.”

Because there is widespread community transmission in Washington, it’s not clear if the man became infected in the ER, or outside of it. He wore appropriate personal protective equipment at all times, the statement read.

The New Jersey doctor came down with respiratory symptoms several days ago, and is now in an isolation unit in the ICU.

This is not the first time that doctors, nurses and health care workers on the frontline have become infected with COVID-19. A health care worker in Solano County, California, tested positive after a patient with the virus was admitted to a hospital there, the Sacramento Bee reported. She was not tested for several days, and more than 200 people who had contact with that person were quarantined. Several healthcare workers in the Seattle area are now infected with COVID-19, according to KUOW.

And frontline medical providers across the U.S. are bracing for coronavirus amid a cascade of rapidly changing guidance on how to protect themselves and treat patients, Live Science reported.

Hospital transmission is a growing concern for doctors and nurses facing a shortage of masks, the Los Angeles Times reported. On Tuesday (March 9), the CDC released guidance saying that looser-fitting, thinner, surgical masks, rather than N95 respirators — which filter out 95% of airborne particles bigger than 5 microns — would be sufficient for many doctors and nurses treating patients with the new coronavirus. That guidance was meant to protect the rapidly dwindling U.S. supply of N95 respirators. The Strategic National Stockpile, meant to provide supplies in an emergency, contains just 1% of the needed 3.5 billion N95 masks that could be needed for health care workers, CNBC reported.

Health care workers are at high risk of infection; a study published March 13 in the journal the Lancet found that 20% of frontline health care workers in northern Italy have become infected with COVID-19. And as Live Science previously reported, a study from China found that N95 respirators were more effective than surgical masks at protecting health care workers from COVID-19. That study, published to the preprint database medRxiv, has not been through peer review.

Everyday life transformed

Across the country, the novel coronavirus has transformed daily life. As of Tuesday (March 17) all public schools were shut in 32 states; some, such as those in Washington state, are closed for at least six weeks, while others closed their doors for 2 weeks. The three largest school districts in the country — New York City, Los Angeles Unified and Chicago City — have closed their K-12 schools.

And these changes could last a while, though the impact on the virus’ spread is still unclear. On Friday (March 13), the CDC issued new guidance on school closure; schools may need to be closed for 8 to 20 weeks to have any impact on the course of the disease. Shorter closures may have no impact, the CDC said, and locales that have closed schools, such as Hong Kong, have not had better containment success than places that have kept them open, such as Singapore.

In New York, Broadway shows were canceled and the Metropolitan Museum of Art closed its doors. In Washington, which has the highest number of cases in the U.S., Gov. Jay Inslee banned gatherings of more than 250 people. In California and Florida, Disneyland and DIsneyworld shut temporarily. In San Francisco, libraries and rec centers were shuttered, and are being repurposed as emergency child care centers for frontline health care workers, according to CBS San Francisco.

Washington

There are now 904 cases in the state, mostly in King and Snohomish counties, outside of Seattle. Many deaths have occurred at a long-care health facility called Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington. Experts are not sure how the virus made its way into the center, which holds 190 beds, according to The New York Times.

In King County, 43 people have died from the virus, with another four deaths from COVID-19 in Snohomish County and one death in Grant County.

On Wednesday (March 11), Gov. Jay Inslee banned all large gatherings in King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties. Smaller gatherings will require social distancing, meaning keeping 3 feet (0.9 meters) between people.

On Friday (March 13), the state implemented a set of much harsher social distancing measures aimed at stemming the tide of new coronavirus, forcing all K-12 schools in King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties to close. Schools will remain closed until at least April 24.

Cases by county:

King: 328 (32 deaths)
Snohomish: 133 (4 deaths)
Clark: 1
Columbia: 1
Grant : 1 (1 death)
Grays Harbor: 1
Island: 3
Jefferson: 1
Kitsap: 3
Kittitas: 3
Pierce: 19
Skagit: 3
Thurston: 1
Whatcom: 1
Yakima: 2
Unassigned: 67

The state’s health department has set up a hotline, which you can call to get your coronavirus questions answered: 1-800-525-0127.

Pennsylvania

The state is currently reporting 28 confirmed and presumptive positive cases of COVID-19. All of the cases so far are in adults, and these individuals are either self-isolating at home or getting medical care at a hospital or other related facility, according to a statement from the state government. In that statement from March 12, the state’s Secretary of Health Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine emphasized they expect more cases to be reported. Schools were closed for two weeks in Montgomery County, a suburb of Philadelphia where many of the cases have been identified. Dozens of schools in the city of Philadelphia have also closed. Gov. Tom Wolf also ordered the closing of gyms, community centers and entertainment venues closed in Montgomery County.

Cases by county:

Bucks: 2
Delaware: 3
Monroe: 2
Montgomery: 17
Northampton: 1
Philadelphia: 1
Pike: 1
Wayne: 1

Illinois

Illinois currently has 32 positive cases of COVID-19, according to the state’s Department of Public Health. The state has currently tested 418 people for the virus; 294 were negative while another 92 results are still pending.

One new case is a child who is in good condition and resting at home, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health press briefing. Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that Illinois would ban large gatherings of 1,000 people or more and asked people to postpone gatherings of 250 people or more.

The first confirmed case of COVID-19 occurred on Jan. 24, in a Chicago resident in her 60s who returned from Wuhan after visiting ill relatives there. She gave the virus to her husband. Both have since made full recoveries. It’s not clear how some of the newer cases were acquired but at least some seem to have come through community spread.

On March 9, Gov. Jay Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation that allows the state to mobilize extra resources to combat the virus.

Several colleges in the state have moved their classes online, including the University of Chicago, Illinois State, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Loyola University, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Florida

Florida is reporting 34 cases of COVID-19, including 2 deaths, according to Florida Health. Of those cases, five were people who were repatriated. An additional 301 tests were negative, while 147 rest results are pending. Four-hundred-and-seventy-six people are currently being monitored for COVID-19.

The two deaths occurred in men in their 70s who had traveled abroad, possibly to Israel or Egypt, according to the Miami Herald. One of those men had underlying health conditions. One of the men who died only tested positive posthumously.

Florida has set up a hotline for coronavirus information: 1-866-779-6121. People can also email COVID-19@flhealth.gov with questions.

Diagnostic tests in US

After botching its initial attempt at a COVID-19 diagnostic test, and taking weeks to develop a replacement, the U.S. government has enlisted the help of private companies and academic institutions to expand the nation’s testing capacity, The New York Times reported.

As of March 10, about 78 state and local health labs in the United States have the capacity to test people for COVID-19, the CDC announced. That means about 75,000 people can get tested, a number far lower than was promised by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); at the end of last week, the FDA pledged a million tests would be available for Americans. The number of tests doesn’t always equate with the number of people that can be tested — Some labs run two tests per person, The Atlantic reported.

Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, FDA Commissioner also clarified this point: “With current estimates (and this could change), 2.1 million tests would roughly translate to 850,000 Americans being able to undergo testing,” he said.

States vary widely in their testing capabilities at the moment. For instance, whereas California can test about 7,400 people a day, Washington can test 1,000 and Oregon can test only 40, according to an analysis by The Atlantic. As of March 10, the U.S. had tested a couple thousand people. That’s compared with a country like South Korea, that is testing some 10,000 people a day.

Even so, several labs have reported that the critical chemicals used to run these tests are running low, STAT reported.