First COVID-19 death in Calif.

Federal officials investigating Wash. home hit by coronavirus

SEATTLE — 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.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency. Washington and Florida have already declared emergencies.

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.

Seema Verma, head of the 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 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.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said a man in his 30s who is hospitalized in Bergen County has the state’s first positive test for COVID-19.

Health officials in North Carolina reported that a person from Wake County tested positive for the illness after visiting the nursing home.

The patient’s flight from the Seattle area to the Raleigh-durham airport raised fears other passengers were exposed to the virus.

Shortly before the California death was announced, Princess Cruise Lines notified passengers of its Grand Princess that federal health officials are investigating a “small cluster” of coronavirus cases connected to the ship’s mid-february voyage.

The Grand Princess is at sea off Mexico and will return early to San Francisco, where CDC and company officials will meet to determine the course of action, the cruise line said.

In Los Angeles, a contract medical worker who was conducting screenings at the city’s main airport has tested positive for the virus. The person wore protective equipment while on the job so it was unclear how the worker contracted the virus, Homeland Security officials said.

In New York, health officials put hundreds of residents in self-quarantine after members of two families in the New York City suburb of New Rochelle were diagnosed with the virus.

Meanwhile, the release of the James Bond film “No Time To Die” was pushed back from April to November because of concerns about the virus.