Florida reports 2 coronavirus deaths, bringing US toll to 17

Reported cases as of Friday night.

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 east coast deaths related to Covid-19.

The pace of diagnosis has grown rapidly in recent days, with 79 new cases announced Friday. Though most of the country’s first cases were diagnosed in travelers who had recently returned from overseas, the virus is now spreading rapidly within communities on both coasts, including in California, New York and Washington State. And more states were seeing diagnoses: Health officials in Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota and Oklahoma reported their first coronavirus cases on Friday.

Worldwide since the first cases were detected in central China in December, more than 3,400 people have died and over 101,000 have been confirmed as infected. Experts believe that the virus is more widespread than reported due to a lack of testing and underreporting.