Seattle skyscraper, schools close amid virus concerns

SEATTLE (AP) — A downtown Seattle skyscraper and about a dozen schools in the area were closed for cleaning Monday after health officials in Washington state announced a second person had died from the new coronavirus.

Researchers said earlier the COVID-19 virus may have been circulating for weeks undetected in Washington state, and experts said more cases would likely be reported in Washington, Oregon and California as testing ramps up.

The F5 technology company said it was closing its 44-story tower in downtown Seattle after learning an employee had been in contact with someone who had tested positive for the virus. The employee tested negative but company spokesman Rob Gruening told The Seattle Times the tower was being closed out of an abundance of caution. And more than 10 schools in the Seattle area were closed for deep cleaning over virus concerns.

Public Health – Seattle & King County said it wasn’t yet recommending school closures or cancellation of activities, but said via Twitter “this is a rapidly evolving situation.”

In a statement Sunday night, Public Health — Seattle & King County said the second man died Saturday. On Saturday, health officials said a man in his 50s died of the new virus Friday, the first such death in the U.S. Both had underlying health conditions, and both were being treated at a hospital in Kirkland, Washington, east of Seattle.

Washington state now has more than a dozen confirmed cases.

Authorities in the Seattle area reported four new cases Sunday night, including the man who died. Of those new cases, two were women, one in her 80s and another in her 90s. Both were in critical condition. A man in his 70s was also in critical condition. All four were from the LifeCare nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington, where health officials said 50 people are sick and being tested for the virus. On Sunday night, the International Association of Fire Fighters said 25 members who responded to calls for help at the nursing facility are being quarantined.

The first U.S. case was a Washington state man who had visited China, where the virus first emerged, but several recent cases in the U.S. have had no known connection to travelers. In California, two health care workers in the San Francisco Bay Area who cared for an earlier coronavirus patient were diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus on Sunday, the Alameda and Solano counties said in a joint statement. In Oregon, the state Health Authority said Sunday that a second person in the state tested positive for the virus. The person is an adult who lives with the first Oregon resident that tested positive and does not need medical attention, the authority said.

Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington on Sunday said they had evidence the virus may have been circulating in the state for up to six weeks undetected — a finding that, if true, could mean hundreds of undiagnosed cases in the area. They posted their research online, but it was not published in a scientific journal or reviewed by other scientists.

Trevor Bedford, an associate professor who announced the preliminary findings on the virus in Washington state, said on Twitter late Saturday that genetic similarities between the state's first case on Jan. 20 and a case announced Friday indicated the newer case may have descended from the earlier one. The Jan. 20 case was the first known case in the U.S.

“I believe we're facing an already substantial outbreak in Washington State that was not detected until now due to narrow case definition requiring direct travel to China,” he said on Twitter.

Scientists not affiliated with the research said the results did not necessarily surprise them and pointed out that for many people — especially younger, healthier ones — the symptoms are not much worse than a flu or bad cold.