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Officials Seek to Calm Public as New US Virus Cases Reported

Associated Press

   PORTLAND, OREGON - The coronavirus may have been circulating for weeks
   undetected in Washington state, a preliminary finding that could mean
   hundreds of undiagnosed cases in the state that's also home to the
   nation's first confirmed infection and now the first death, researchers
   said Sunday after analyzing genetic samples of the pathogens.

   State and local authorities stepped up testing for the illness Sunday
   as the number of new cases grew nationwide, with new infections
   announced in Illinois, Rhode Island and Washington state. Authorities
   in the Seattle area said two more people had been diagnosed with the
   coronavirus, both men in their 60s who were in critical condition.
   Those cases brought the numbers in the Seattle area to six. Fifty more
   people in a nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington, are sick and
   being tested for the virus.

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