Nine people in Washington have now died due to the novel coronavirus: eight from King County and one from Snohomish County.

The death toll grew Tuesday afternoon when King County health officials announced three new deaths and seven new cases, bringing the total number of cases in Washington state to 27 between Snohomish and King Counties. Snohomish County announced two new cases Tuesday but no additional deaths.

Five of the people who have died were residents of Life Care Center, a nursing facility in Kirkland, where an outbreak has hospitalized several residents. All of the state’s COVID-19 deaths are in people over the age of 50, and many of them have underlying health conditions.

Two of the deaths announced today were from Feb. 26. They were Life Care residents, one of whom died at her family home and another who died at Harborview Medical Center.

Life Care Center in Kirkland has blocked family members, volunteers and vendors from coming into the facility. The center said its residents and workers are being monitored closely for signs of the virus, which include fever, cough or difficulty breathing.

“Any resident displaying these symptoms is placed in isolation. Associates are screened prior to beginning work and upon leaving,” a March 1 statement on Life Care Center’s website says. “We are also following infection control recommendations, including proper hand-washing techniques and wearing masks, gowns and gloves when caring for any symptomatic patients. All of these decisions have been made based on recommendations from the state health department and the CDC.”

This story is developing and will be updated.

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Arielle Dreher's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper’s managing editor.