The first deaths linked to the new coronavirus in the U.S. happened last week, days earlier than previously known, as the death count rose and is expected to continue to climb.

The first-known deceased, a 54-year-old man and a woman in her 80s, both died last Thursday and were residents of a nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., that has been at the heart of the nation’s worst outbreak of the disease, officials from Seattle and King County reported Tuesday.

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