March 7 coronavirus news

There are now 29 US states with cases of the novel coronavirus, after Utah announced a resident had tested positive.

The Utah Department of Health said in a news release that the resident had contracted the coronavirus while onboard the Grand Princess cruise ship, which is anchored off the coast of California under quarantine.

The patient -- described as a Davis County resident over the age of 60 -- sought medical attention after returning home and developing symptoms. The patient is now at home in isolation.

The presumptive positive result for coronavirus came from testing at the Utah Public Health Laboratory.

Two patients who tested positive for the novel coronavirus have died, the Florida Department of Health announced Friday night.

Both of the deceased -- one of whom was in their 70s -- had recently returned from international trips to undisclosed locations. One was in Santa Rosa County while the other in Lee County.

In addition to the two deaths, Florida's Department of Health announced two new presumptive positive cases of the coronavirus in Broward County.

This brings the US death toll to 17. These are the first US deaths outside the states of California and Washington. 

An employee at a downtown Seattle Starbucks has tested positive for novel coronavirus, according to a memo released by the company Friday evening.

Starbucks said the worker is now isolated at home. The store where the patient worked is now closed, and the company said it was subjected to a deep cleaning overnight.

The local health department gave the store the go-ahead to return to business, according to the company, but Starbucks has not announced when the location will reopen.

Three Maryland patients contracted the coronavirus on a Nile River cruise in Egypt, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced in a news conference.

Hogan said these cases also appear to be linked to six confirmed coronavirus cases in Texas who were also on a Nile River cruise. 

Two of the Maryland patients had public interaction. Hogan said that one individual, after returning from the cruise on February 20, attended an event in the Philadelphia area where they were in contact with a group of children. As a result, the Central Bucks Co. School District in the Philadelphia suburbs made the decision to close five local schools today.

Another patient attended a public event on February 29 at the Village at Rockville, a retirement community where they were in contact with approximately 70 to 100 individuals including outside visitors, as well as residents and staff, according to Hogan. 

The Iraqi Ministry of Health announced eight new coronavirus infections Friday, bringing the country's total confirmed cases to 46.

Iraq shares a border with Iran, the Middle Eastern country that has the largest number of infections in the region.

As of Friday night, Iran had more than 4,700 confirmed cases of the virus, including 124 deaths.

Ecuador’s ministry of health has confirmed an additional case of the coronavirus, bringing the country’s total to 14, according to a statement published via Twitter on Friday.

The statement said that the foreign individual traveled to Ecuador for tourism and is now hospitalized; his condition is not being revealed. It was not announced which country the tourist came from.

The US now has 329 confirmed or presumed positive cases of the novel coronavirus in 28 states, according to CNN's tally of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state totals.

Compared to the Thursday night total of 227 cases, that is a jump of more than 100 infections in just 24 hours.

The largest clusters of cases are in Washington state, California and New York. In total there have been 15 deaths from the virus in the US.

Indonesia confirmed two new novel coronavirus cases on Friday, raising the nationwide tally to four, according to a report from state-run news agency Antara News.

The association representing four million nurses in the United States called on Friday for "a concerted effort among all members of the health care team, decision makers and the public to respond to the coronavirus outbreak."

The American Nurses Association said in a statement that while their members were ready to respond to the crisis, they needed "proper support."