A person is taken by stretcher to a waiting ambulance from a nursing facility where more than 50 people are sick and being tested for the COVID-19 virus, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, in Kirkland, Wash.

Caption

A person is taken by stretcher to a waiting ambulance from a nursing facility where more than 50 people are sick and being tested for the COVID-19 virus, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, in Kirkland, Wash. / AP

The governor of Washington state declared a state of emergency Saturday after a man died there of COVID-19, the first such reported death in the United States.

Health officials say the man who died was in his 50s, had underlying health conditions. 

More than 50 people in a nursing facility are sick and being tested for the virus. A woman in her 40s who works at the facility and a resident in her 70s have tested positive for the virus.

Officials in California, Oregon and Washington state are worried about the novel coronavirus spreading through West Coast communities because people are being infected by unknown means.

Tags: Coronavirus  Georgia