Three more patients have succumbed to the coronavirus in the western US state of Washington on Tuesday, bringing the total death toll to 9. The number of diagnosed coronavirus cases also rose from 18 to 27. Several of those who died had been residents of a long-term nursing care facility in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland.

The deaths in Washington are the the first fatalities documented in the US from COVID-19 coronavirus, the respiratory disease that originated from China in December and already killed around 3,000 people worldwide.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it has recorded 108 confirmed and presumed cases of coronavirus in at least a dozen US states so far. Almost half of them are passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise liner, which had been quarantined in Japan over the outbreak of COVID-19.