The US death toll from the coronavirus passed 100 on Tuesday, and West Virginia announced its first case of the virus, making it the 50th and final state to have a confirmed case of the coronavirus.
The state of Washington currently has the highest death toll at 54 people. The virus made it into a Seattle nursing home and killed 30. About 85% of the deaths in the US were people over the age of 60, and 45% were older than 80, according to The Washington Post. The majority of those that passed away were living in residential care facilities when they contracted the virus.
The US military is preparing to distribute more then 5 million protective masks and other equipment, according to Reuters. Already, some 1 million are ready and will be given to the military strategic reserves for government redistribution, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Tuesday. US Defense Secretary Mark Esper told a news conference that the Pentagon would also be prepared to distribute up to 2,000 ventilators. He added that the US military’s laboratories would additionally be made available to start carrying out coronavirus tests for civilians, increasing US testing capacity.
The Pentagon has also begun mobilizing US Navy hospital ships as part of the US Defense Department’s plan to contain the domestic spread of the coronavirus, USNI News reported.
“We’ve already given orders to the Navy… to lean forward in terms of getting them ready to deploy,” Esper said Tuesday, the report stated.
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