Coronavirus USA Update: Seattle, California Confirm Four More Cases, Spread To Be Expected

Washington state is now clearly showing signs of becoming the first COVID-19 hotspot in the United States following the confirmation Sunday of two more cases of COVID-19 infections in King County, the state's most populous county whose capital is Seattle. These two new patients in King County, both men in their 60s, are in critical condition.

These patients increase the total number of confirmed cases in the area to six, according to Public Health-Seattle & King County (PHSKC), the public health department jointly managed by the City of Seattle and King County governments. PHSKC said four of the cases had already been reported. One of these cases was a man in his 50s from King County who died Saturday, making him the first person in the United States to pass away from COVID-19.

PHSKC said one of the four previously reported cases is a woman U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employee. USPS said this employee had some contact with other employees at the facility where she works. It emphasized this employee had no contact with the packages sent directly to customers. The facility has been closed for disinfecting.

The two new cases reported Sunday are both males in their 60s that have underlying health conditions. Most of the fatalities reported by China are people 60 years old and above with underlying or co-morbid conditions such as heart problems, diabetes and liver problems.

In addition to the new Seattle cases, two healthcare workers in Northern California have tested positive for COVID-19. The new patients bring the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. to 76 as of Sunday evening.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) said both healthcare workers tested positive for the highly-contagious coronavirus after being exposed to a patient now being treated for the virus at a hospital in Sacramento. Public health officials in Alameda County and Solano County, where both these people live, said the workers are isolated inside their homes.

The fast-paced spread of COVID-19, which had been foretold by American doctors and health agencies, is forcing the federal government to plan for “radical expansion” in testing capacity, said Alex Azar, the health and human services secretary, on CBS.

The woeful lack of mass testing in the U.S. similar to that now being undertaken by South Korea has been widely criticized by American health experts, who say it's the reason why the U.S. apparently has such a low infection rate. Widespread testing will likely discover the true extent of the coronavirus' community spread inside mainland United States, that it is far larger than the White House cares to admit.

There might already be "a few hundred" people in Washington State that might actually be infected by COVID-19, claims Trevor Bedford, a researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Bedford tweeted: "There are some enormous implications here ... I believe we're facing an already substantial outbreak in Washington State that was not detected until now."

He said he studied two cases confirmed weeks apart and concluded they were linked through community transmission, or from a source not directly connected to another known case. Bedford estimated COVID-19 has been spreading in Washington State for the past six weeks.

The spread by "community transmissions is an indication we might be looking at the tip of the iceberg," claims Ogbonnaya Omenka, an assistant professor and public health specialist at Butler University's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Omenka told USA Today this development is bad news for federal efforts to contain the virus nationwide.

As of 8:33 p.m. ET, Sunday, the U.S. has 76 confirmed COVID-19 cases and one death, according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE). Worldwide, confirmed cases come to 88,582 of which 80,024 are in mainland China. There are 3,038 deaths globally.