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Washington DC mayor says 1st presumptive positive coronavirus case reported in US capital

Over 250 people on the territory of the United States have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus

WASHINGTON, March 8. /TASS/. The first case of the novel coronavirus was presumably registered in the capital of the United States, Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington DC, announced on her Twitter page.

"Late this afternoon, testing at the Public Health Lab at the DC Department of Forensic Sciences yielded its first presumptive positive coronavirus (COVID-19) case," Mayor Bowser stated.

New York Times daily reported on Friday that over 250 people on the territory of the United States have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus adding that 15 of them have already died (14 in the state of Washington and 1 in the state of California).

Earlier this week, the US House of Representatives approved a bill on $8.3 billion in emergency aid to combat the novel coronavirus. Under the legislation, over $3 billion will be allocated to finance the development of vaccines, diagnostic study, as well as therapeutics and other treatments. Another $2.2 will be spent on measures of prevention, of which $950 million will be used to support public health agencies.

On December 31, 2019, the Chinese authorities reported to the World Health Organization about an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan, an economic and industrial megalopolis with a population of 11 million.

The virus was identified on January 7 as 2019-nCoV. As of today, 103 countries and territories, including Russia, have reported confirmed coronavirus cases.

The World Health Organization declared the new coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, characterizing it as an epidemic with multiple locations. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated on February 11 that the organization gave the novel coronavirus an official name of COVID-19.

According to the latest reports, over 106,190 cases of patients infected with the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in China and other countries. The virus’ death toll has reached 3,600, yet more than 60,190 patients have recovered from the disease.