(CNN) The first presumptive case of the novel coronavirus in North Carolina is linked to a Seattle-area nursing home facility where five residents were sick and later died, authorities in the Tar Heel state said Tuesday.

The new patient is from Wake County, home to Raleigh and 1.1 million people. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said the person was exposed at a center in Washington where there is a Covid-19 outbreak while on a trip.

That facility is the Life Care Center in Kirkland, northeast of Seattle, where county and federal officials are trying to determine how the disease got there and watching many of the more than 200 people who lived or worked there for signs of coronavirus.

Four Life Care residents died at a hospital and one died at a residence, officials said Tuesday.

The North Carolina resident's positive test has not been confirmed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Read More