New York/Beijing/Seoul: Health officials in Washington state said on Sunday a second person infected with the coronavirus had died there, while New York's governor said his state confirmed its first case of the illness.
The Washington death was in the Seattle area and was reported on the website of the Seattle and King County public health department. On Saturday, the same officials reported the first death from coronavirus in the United States.
New York state confirmed its first positive coronavirus test, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday night. He wrote on Twitter that a woman in her 30s contracted coronavirus during a recent trip to Iran and was in quarantine in her home. He did not say where the woman lived, but the New York Times, citing unnamed state officials, said the woman was in New York City.
"The patient has respiratory symptoms, but is not in serious condition and has been in a controlled situation since arriving in New York," Cuomo said.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths globally in the new coronavirus outbreak passed 3,000 on Monday, as China reported 42 more deaths.
At the federal level, President Donald Trump's administration scrambled on Sunday to reassure Americans as the disease spreads and businesses cancel conferences and flights.
Administration officials tried to calm market fears that the coronavirus could cause a global recession, saying the public had overreacted and that stocks would bounce back because of the underlying strength of the US economy.
Washington state on Sunday confirmed two other cases at a long-term care facility where a resident and a worker also tested positive for coronavirus and 50 residents and staff were showing symptoms.
Over 70 cases have been reported in the United States, with most on the West Coast but new cases in the Chicago area and Rhode Island, aside from New York.
Stock markets plunged last week, with an index of global stocks setting its largest weekly fall since the 2008 financial crisis, and more than $5 trillion wiped off the value of stocks worldwide.
A key energy conference in Houston that brings together oil ministers and energy firms was cancelled on Sunday with the organizers of CERAWeek noting that border health checks were becoming more restrictive and companies had begun barring non-essential travel to protect workers.
A world economy conference with Pope Francis due to take place in Italy later this month was also cancelled.
'We're ready'
Trump said on Sunday that travellers to the United States from countries at high risk of coronavirus would be screened before boarding and on arrival, without specifying which countries.
Delta Air Lines Inc said on Sunday it was suspending until May flights to Milan in northern Italy where most of that country's coronavirus cases have been reported. Flights will continue to Rome. American Airlines Group Inc announced a similar move late on Saturday.
The United States has 75,000 test kits for coronavirus and will expand that number "radically" in coming weeks, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.
Vice President Mike Pence said the government had contracted 3M Co to produce an extra 35 million respiratory masks a month. He urged Americans not to buy the masks, which he said were only needed by healthcare workers. Honeywell International Inc is the other major US mask producer.
He also told Fox News that clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine would start in six weeks but that a vaccine would likely not be available this season.
Democrats, who will challenge Trump for the presidency in the Nov. 3 election, have criticized his administration for downplaying the crisis and not preparing for the disease to spread in the United States.
Pence, whom Trump appointed last week to run the White House's coronavirus response, said Americans should brace for more cases but that the "vast majority" of those who contracted the disease would recover.
"Other than in areas where there are individuals that have been infected with the coronavirus, people need to understand that for the average American, the risk does remain low. We're ready," Pence told NBC's "Meet the Press."
The United States has imposed limits on travelers who have visited Iran and recommended against travel to hard-hit areas of Italy and South Korea.
Trump said on Saturday that the United States was also considering shutting the country's southern border with Mexico to control the spread of the virus, adding: "We hope we won't have to do that."
Mexico has reported four coronavirus cases. Its Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that both governments were in "close and effective communication, especially the health authorities."
Hubei reports sharp drop in new cases
China's central Hubei province, the epicentre of the country's coronavirus outbreak, reported less than 200 cases of new infections for the first time since January.
Hubei had 196 new confirmed cases on Sunday, the National Health Commission said on Monday, sharply down from 570 cases a day earlier and the lowest since Jan. 24.
The decline was driven by a decline in new cases in the provincial capital of Wuhan, which reported 193 new infections, the lowest since Jan. 26.
Overall, mainland China had 202 new confirmed cases, the lowest since Jan. 22.
Excluding the new infections in Hubei, there were only six new cases in mainland China, the lowest since last month. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 80,026.
The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China reached 2,912 as of the end of Sunday, up by 42 from the previous day.
Hubei accounted for all of the 42 new deaths, while 32 people died in Wuhan.
South Korea reports 476 new cases
South Korea reported on Monday 476 new coronavirus cases, taking its national tally to 4,212, as the government of Seoul sought a murder investigation into a controversial church at the centre of the country's outbreak.
The new cases followed the country's biggest daily jump on Saturday of 813 confirmed infections. There were 586 more on Sunday, broadening the largest virus outbreak outside China.
The death toll rose to 22, up from 20, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
Of the new cases, 377 were from the southeastern city of Daegu, home to a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, to which most of South Korea's cases have been traced. Sixty-eight were from the nearby province of North Gyeongsang, KCDC said.
The agency said some members of the church in January visited the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the disease emerged late last year, though it was investigating to determine whether that played a role in the outbreak.
"We will take all necessary measures we can if there are signs that the church did not cooperate with us intentionally or for other reasons," Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip told a briefing. "But until then, it is substantially helpful to draw the church's voluntary cooperation using the information they've provided."
Seoul has asked prosecutors to consider a murder investigation into the church's founder and chairman, Lee Man-hee, saying the church was liable for its refusal to cooperate with efforts to stop the disease.
The church issued a statement late on Sunday reiterating calls for an end to "stigmatisation, hatred and slander" against its followers, saying it was cooperating with the government.
The secretive church faces unprecedented scrutiny from authorities and the public, with all of its 310,000 known followers and "trainees" are being tested for the virus.
Founder and self-proclaimed messiah Lee is scheduled to hold a news conference in Gapyeong, northeast of Seoul, at 3 p.m. Monday local time (0600 GMT).
