Iran Press/ America: Trevor Bedford announced his findings on Saturday night, saying that a genetic analysis of the virus from a newly diagnosed patient in Snohomish County closely matched that of a specimen from the first known coronavirus patient in the United States, who traveled from China in January.
The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that these cases are linked through community transmission, Bedford said, adding that this has been going on for weeks, with hundreds of infections likely.
"This strongly suggests that there has been cryptic transmission in Washington state for the past six weeks," he wrote. "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."
The United States, Australia and Thailand each reported their first coronavirus-related deaths over the weekend, all in the span of about 12 hours. Covid-19 has killed patients on four continents, with the global death toll now reaching 3000.
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