(Reuters) - The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in Washington state rose on Tuesday to 27, including nine deaths, up from 18 cases and six deaths a day earlier, state health authorities reported, in the largest U.S. outbreak to emerge from local transmission.
The deaths - eight in King County and one in neighbouring Snohomish County - mark the first fatalities documented in the United States from a respiratory illness that has killed more than 3,000 people worldwide, mostly in China, where the epidemic originated in December.