
A New York family of five who are friends with the Manhattan attorney who infected his wife, two children and a neighbor have now also tested positive to coronavirus - as 1,000 others that may have come into contact with him are ordered to self-quarantine.

It comes as the US death toll from the COVID-19 coronavirus rose to 11 on Wednesday and the number of confirmed cases across the country surpassed 150.

California recorded its first death on Wednesday after an elderly patient with underlying health conditions likely died following exposure on a Princess cruise to Mexico in early February. It is the first coronavirus death outside Washington state, where the 10 other patients have died - the majority linked to a nursing home near Seattle.

Health officials in Los Angeles County - which has about 10 million residents - also declared a health emergency on Wednesday after six new cases were confirmed in less than 48 hours, bringing the total in the city to seven and raising the California state case figure to 35.

The New York cases increased to 11 on Wednesday after officials revealed that the 50-year-old infected Manhattan attorney had been linked to at least nine of the confirmed cases. A female healthcare worker who has not been linked to the attorney had earlier tested positive after returning from a trip to Iran.

The attorney's wife, 20-year-old son, 14-year-old daughter and neighbor have all tested positive for coronavirus. His friend, the friend's wife and their three children have also all since tested positive.

The number of coronavirus cases in New York has now jumped to six after the wife, two children and neighbor of a Manhattan attorney who is currently hospitalized (above) with the disease all tested positive

He remains in intensive care at the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. Health officials said the attorney was suffering from severe pneumonia, which put him in more danger than others who have also tested positive.

His family remain quarantined in their home in New Rochelle in Westchester County. The neighbor, who initially drove the attorney to the hospital when he started suffering from coronavirus symptoms last Friday night, is also under self-quarantine at home.

WHAT ARE THE CORONAVIRUS SYMPTOMS? The virus, called COVID-19, is transmitted from person to person via droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes. It can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles or railings. Coronavirus infections have a wide range of symptoms, including fever, coughing, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Mild cases can cause cold-like symptoms including a sore throat, headache, fever, cough or trouble breathing. Severe cases can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory illness, kidney failure and death. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure. Advertisement

Following the positive tests, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said about 1,000 people in Westchester County and New York City will be contacted by health professionals and asked to self-quarantine.

They include some 300 people from New Rochelle synagogue the infected family attends, two people at the son's university, an unconfirmed number of students at the daughter's school in the Bronx, seven employees and one intern at the Manhattan law firm and eight staffers at New York Presbyterian-Lawrence Hospital.

The attorney had been confirmed as the state's second case on Tuesday.

The lawyer commuted every day on the Metro-North Railroad from his home in New Rochelle to his small law firm across from Grand Central Terminal. His wife and one of their four children also work at the firm.

Seven law firm employees were identified as being at risk of coronavirus after having close, prolonged contact with the infected attorney.

Yeshiva University, the private Jewish university where the lawyer's diagnosed 20-year-old son is a student, canceled classes at its Washington Heights campus on Wednesday as a precaution.

The SAR High School in the Bronx where the lawyer's diagnosed 14-year-old daughter is a student was shut down after his positive test was announced Tuesday.

The Westchester Torah Academy where the children of the other family who tested positive had already decided to close until Friday as a precaution.

Health officials on Tuesday directed the family's synagogue, Young Israel of New Rochelle, to halt services immediately. Congregants who attended February 22 services as well as a funeral and a bat mitzvah on February 23 were directed to quarantine themselves at least through Sunday.

The Manhattan lawyer commuted daily from New Rochelle to Grand Central Terminal before heading to his office in Midtown Manhattan. This map shows where in the city and Westchester County he and his family came into contact with people with

The sudden outbreak came after New York health officials revealed on Monday that a female healthcare worker in Manhattan, aged in her 30s, was confirmed to be the state's first case.

In what he said was a piece of good news, Cuomo announced that tests in other suspected cases around the state had come back negative, including for the husband of the healthcare worker. The husband and wife had recently traveled together to Iran where the disease is widespread.

Cuomo, as he has done in recent days, sought to reassure the public that the disease is often passed by close contact, not casual contact like riding in the same subway car as a person who may be sick.

'We have an epidemic caused by coronavirus but we have a pandemic that is caused by fear,' Cuomo said on Wednesday.

'There are going to be many, many people who test positive. By definition, the more you test, the more people you will find who test positive. It is easily transmitted, but 80 percent of the people who get the virus will self-resolve. The other 20% may be medically ill and even require hospitalization, in which case we have that capacity.'

It comes as the death toll from the coronavirus reached 11 on Wednesday. Ten deaths have occurred in Washington state with at least six of them linked to the senior living facility, Life Care Center, in Seattle.

California reported its first death on Wednesday involving an elderly patient in Placer County, just outside Sacramento, who had an underlying health condition.

Officials said that patient likely was exposed to the virus on a Princess cruise traveling between San Francisco to Mexico in early February. The patient had been in isolation at Kaiser Permanente Roseville hospital.

In the Los Angeles County cases, officials said they had tracked the exposure of the six new cases and narrowed them to travel-related or exposure to people who had traveled. It included three people who had recently been to northern Italy. Of the six, only one has been hospitalized while the other five were recovering in home isolation.

A medical professional who conducted passenger screenings at LAX airport was among those who tested positive.

The 50-year-old attorney, who lives in Westchester County and commutes to his midtown Manhattan law firm (above), was confirmed as the state's second case on Tuesday

Yeshiva University (above), the private Jewish university where the lawyer's diagnosed 20-year-old son is a student, canceled classes at its Washington Heights campus on Wednesday as a precaution

The World Health Organization has since warned that the fatality rate of the virus (3.4 percent) is higher than initially thought - making it more than three times deadlier than the flu.

Cuomo had earlier quoted the estimated fatality rate as being 1.4 percent, which he attributed to the CDC. That rate was based on a Chinese study that had factored a bigger group of patients who were both young and old.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading expert on coronavirus in the US, told Congress on Wednesday it was still too early to determine accurate mortality rates of the disease in America because it wasn't yet clear how many had been infected.

U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday agreed on an emergency funding package worth more than $7 billion to address the spread of the disease. The bill would be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives later on Wednesday.

The number of cases across the country continued to increase on Wednesday with an Amazon employee at the company's Seattle headquarters - which is just 12 miles from the outbreak nursing home - testing positive for coronavirus.

Amazon confirmed late Tuesday that the employees had tested positive for coronavirus after going home sick from work on February 25. An Amazon spokeperson told DailyMail.com: 'We're supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine.'

The internal email sent to Amazon employees in Seattle and nearby Bellvue said that any employees who had been 'in close contact' with the infected worker were notified separately, the Seattle Times reports.

The email instructed employees experiencing symptoms to stay at home and seek medical attention.

'Your health is our top priority and we are continuing with enhanced deep cleaning and sanitization in the office,' the message said.

Amazon has more than 50,000 employees in Seattle and more than 275,000 full-time workers across the U.S. Last week, Amazon became one of the first U.S. companies to crack down on employee travel due to the outbreak, banning all 'non-essential' work trips.

Washington state has become an early coronavirus hot zone as the virus rapidly spreads across the U.S. The number of infections in the U.S. has now climbed past 150 with cases scattered across at least 15 states.

'What is happening now in the United States may be the beginning of what is happening abroad,' said Dr Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Messonnier noted that in China, where the outbreak began more than two months ago, older and sicker people are about twice as likely to become seriously ill as those who are younger and healthier. Most cases, however, have been mild.

Health officials in Los Angeles County - which has about 10 million residents - declared a health emergency on Wednesday after six new cases were confirmed in less than 48 hours, bringing the total in the city to seven and raising the California state case figure to 35

An Amazon employee at the company's Seattle headquarters (above) has tested positive for coronavirus - just 12 miles away from the nursing home where six infected patients have died

Amazon's headquarters is just a 12-mile drive away from the outbreak nursing home, the Life Care Center of Kirkland, where at least six residents have died from coronavirus

In total, there have been 10 coronavirus deaths on US soil with all of them occurring in Washington state. At least six of them are linked to the Life Care Center of Kirkland (Pictured is a patient being taken from the nursing home on Tuesday)

Medics wait to enter the Life Care Center in Seattle that has been linked to at least six of the 10 coronavirus deaths in the US

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE 11 US PATIENTS WHO DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS So far, 11 people have died of coronavirus in the US, federal and local health officials say. Ten of the deaths have occurred in Washington state - nine in King County and one of Snohomish County. Most came from Life Care Center, a long-term care facility in Kirkland. One deaths has occurred in Placer County, California. Here's what we currently know: 1. A man in his 50s was brought from Life Care Center to Harborview Medical Center on February 24. He died two days later and is the first death in the US from coronavirus 2. A man in his 50s from King County who had underlying health conditions. He was hospitalized and died at EvergreenHealth on February 29 3. A man in his 40s from Snohomish County who died after being hospitalized at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland on March 1 4. A woman in her 70s, who lived at Life Care and was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. She had pre-existing conditions, and died on March 1 5. A man in his 70s, linked to Life Care, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. He died on February 29 and pre-existing conditions 6. A man in his 70s, who was also a resident of Life Care, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth. He died on March 1 and also had underlying health conditions 7. A woman in her 70s, who was a Life Care resident, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth and died on March 2 8. A woman in her 80s, who was linked to Life Care and was previously reported to be in critical condition at EvergreenHealth, died on March 1 9. A woman in her 80s, who was a resident of Life Care and was never hospitalized, died at her family home on February 26 10. A tenth death was confirmed on March 4, but Public Health - Seattle & King County has not yet released information about the latest death 11. An 69-year-old man died on March 4 in Placer County, California after likely becoming infected on a Princess cruise ship that traveled from San Francisco to Mexico between February 11 and 21 Advertisement

In suburban Seattle, 27 firefighters and paramedics who responded to calls at the infected nursing home were tested for the virus on Tuesday using a drive-thru system set up in a hospital parking area.

The nursing home outbreak is also the source of the first case in North Carolina, it was revealed on Tuesday. A man in Wake County tested positive for the virus after visiting the care facility in Washington and then flying back home.

It was revealed on Tuesday that two people who had died last week at the nursing home had since tested positive for the disease.

One of those Life Care residents, a male in his 50s, died last Wednesday after being taken to a Seattle hospital. A woman in her 80s, who was a resident of Life Care but was never hospitalized, died at her family home that same day.

Test results only just confirmed that they both had coronavirus.

Officials have not yet determined how the senior living facility became the epicenter of where the majority of deadly cases have been linked to.

The jump in the death toll came as health officials promised to ramp up coronavirus testing across the US and vowed to test a million people by the end of the week.

Officials have also revealed that at least a quarter of the cases across the country have been transferred through communities rather than travel.

An increase in testing for the coronavirus has started to shed light on how the illness has spread in the US with newly confirmed cases in New York, Georgia, Florida and New Hampshire.

Florida declared a public health emergency after confirming its three cases. A man in his 60s with no recent travel history was diagnosed on Sunday with coronavirus.

Meanwhile, a 29-year-old woman who had recently returned from Italy tested positive on Sunday before her sister became the third case on Tuesday.

That woman claims she told the CDC of her symptoms after flying from Italy to New York on her way back to Florida. She claims the CDC told her she was okay to continue on the flight from New York to Tampa. She was tested for coronavirus after arriving back in Tampa last week.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said he expects community-related cases to grow in the coming weeks.

'My concern is as the next week or two or three go by, we're going to see a lot more community-related cases,' he said. 'That's of great concern.'

The total number of cases in the US includes people who tested positive after returning from travel to outbreak areas in other parts of the world, their close contacts and infections that appear to be from community spread - people who did not travel or have known contact with other infected people.

Dr Fauci, who is the top coronavirus expert in the country, said community spread made it almost impossible to predict how many cases there will be.

'The very fact that you have community spread… the source of these infections are not entirely known. People are cropping up with infections and you can't trace where they got it,' Dr Fauci said.

State and local authorities have been stepping up testing for the illness following a debacle with faulty kits from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that officials say delayed results.

In response to the faulty tests, the Food and Drug Administration over the weekend allowed state and local labs to develop their own tests for coronavirus. It will see an increase in tests being carried out, according to FDA Commissioner Dr Stephen Hahn, who said he expects more than 1 million people to be tested within the next week.

Dr Fauci speaks to President Trump on Tuesday during a tour of the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center on Tuesday

Shelves keep emptying across America as demand for hand sanitizer rockets 73% and shoppers load up on bottled water amid coronavirus panic

Panic buying across the US has continued as shoppers empty shelves amid panic over the spread of coronavirus - sending hand sanitizer sales rocketing 73 per cent.

Anxious shoppers have been loading up on essential items such as bottled water, toilet paper, disinfectant, tinned food and cleaning products to prepare for the possibility of having to self-isolate.

Sales of hand sanitizers in the US were up 73 per cent in the four weeks ending February 22 compared to the same period a year ago, according to market research firm Nielsen.

Store managers have seen a dwindling supply of bottled water, toilet paper, disinfectant sprays and wipes as fears of coronavirus spread across the country.

Most, if not all, pharmacies and supermarkets have been out of face masks for more than a month, with little hope of restocking anytime soon.

Purell says it has seen higher demand from health care facilities in addition to stores.

It is adding more shifts and having employees work overtime at the two Ohio facilities where most Purell is made, according to Samantha Williams, a spokeswoman for its parent company Gojo Industries.

Bath & Body Works, which sells hand sanitizers with scents like 'vanilla rose' and 'pineapple colada,' says its been able to keep bottles in stock at its 1,700 stores.

An executive for Bath & Body Works owner L Brands said last week that hand sanitizers made up 5 per cent of its total business and that it's growing 'at a very high rate.'

Walmart has seen higher demand for cleaning supplies and other items - similar to when shoppers start preparing for a hurricane. The world's largest retailer says it is working with suppliers to stock up again on those items, including hand sanitizer.

On Amazon, most hand sanitizers had sold out and the ones that remained were seriously overpriced, even though the company has said it is policing its site for price gougers.

For example, two 8-ounce bottles of Purell were being offered for $119 by a third-party seller; such vendors can list their items for sale on Amazon.com directly.

Panic buying across the US has continued as shoppers empty shelves amid panic over the spread of coronavirus - sending hand sanitizer sales rocketing 73 per cent. Pictured is a Costco in West Palm Beach, Florida

Cleaning supplies are dwindling, but visibly being restocked, at a Walmart in West Palm Beach amid fears of a coronavirus outbreak

Hand sanitizer is seen completely gone at a Walmart in West Palm Beach. Sales of hand sanitizers in the US were up 73 per cent in the four weeks ending February 22 compared to the same period a year ago

Tissue and paper products selling out at a Walmart in West Palm Beach on Tuesday. At a Costco in Los Angeles, hand sanitizer was gone and shoppers clogged the back of the store where workers were wheeling out pallet after pallet of bottled water

Coronavirus fatality rate is HIGHER than thought: Virus kills 3.4% of all patients, says World Health Organization, compared to 1% for flu

The strain of coronavirus behind the growing global crisis kills 3.4 per cent of all patients, the World Health Organization has warned.

Dr Tedros Adhanom, director-general of the UN body, said current figures show the infection is three times deadlier than flu.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adghamon Ghebreyesus called on global manufacturers to increase their producto of personal protective equipment by 40%

The WHO also warned supplies of face masks and other protective equipment are 'rapidly depleting' because of a 'severe disruption' to the global supply chain.

Dr Tedros warned the shortages are leaving medics dangerously ill-equipped to care for patients with COVID-19, the disease which has struck 92,000 people worldwide.

Up to 90 million masks, 1.6 million sets of goggles and 76 million pairs of examination gloves are needed to protect health care workers, it is estimated.

Shortages and supply hoarding have triggered huge price inflations on vital personal protective equipment (PPE).

Face mask prices have surged by six-fold, the cost of gowns has doubled and prices for N95 respirators have tripled.

'Stocks are often sold to the highest bidder,' said Dr Tedros. 'We urgently need to increase production' of PPE, he warned.

Manufacturing needs to jump by 40 per cent to meet the growing demand, it is estimated. It is a pattern already emerging in the US, where more than 150 people are now infected.

US consumers have been panic-buying PPE, canned food and cleaning supplies in fear that they might have to shelter at home if the coronavirus starts spreading in their community.

Retailers - from local pharmacies to national chains - have reported shortages, and Amazon has been cracking down on price gouging for masks and other products.

Dr Tedros pleaded with the public to stop hoarding and stockpiling as masks are not recommended for most people and contribute to governmental and hospital shortages.

He also encouraged worldwide governments to incentivze increased manufacturing of protective gear.