Coronavirus death toll in Washington State reaches 9

Three more patients succumbed to the coronavirus in the western US state of Washington on Tuesday, bringing the total death toll to nine.

The number of diagnosed coronavirus cases also rose from 18 to 27. Several of those who died had been residents of a long-term nursing care facility in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland.

The deaths in Washington are the first fatalities documented in the US from the COVID-19 coronavirus, the respiratory disease that originated in China last December and has already killed around 3,000 people worldwide.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it has recorded 108 confirmed and presumed cases of coronavirus in at least a dozen US states so far. Almost half of them are passengers of the 'Diamond Princess' cruise liner, which had been quarantined in Japan due to an outbreak of COVID-19.