Coronavirus: new cases in Los Angeles and New York, the Congress agrees to release funds - France 24

Los Angeles (AFP)

Health authorities on Wednesday identified ten new cases of coronavirus infection in the two largest cities in the United States, where parliamentarians agreed to release a budget of more than $ 8 billion to contain the epidemic.

Six new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the megalopolis of Los Angeles (ten million inhabitants) while four other patients were treated in New York (more than 20 million inhabitants) after being in contact with a patient.

In total, nine people died of the new coronavirus on American soil, where more than 130 cases have been reported in different states.

A parliamentary aide told AFP that Republican and Democrat politicians had reached an agreement on $ 8.3 billion in funding to boost efforts to fight the epidemic. The provision is due to be adopted Wednesday by the House of Representatives and Thursday by the Senate.

President Donald Trump had initially mentioned an envelope of only 2.5 billion but later said that he would accept a higher amount.

Los Angeles health officials have insisted that the six newly identified cases were exposed to Covid-19 through close contact with previously infected patients and that it was not an unknown source of contamination .

Three of the infected patients are travelers who traveled together in northern Italy, one of the main centers of coronavirus in Europe, said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for the county of Los Angeles.

Two other cases listed Wednesday involve people who have been in contact with a family member who is himself infected, and the last case is a patient whose profession puts him in contact with travelers, added Dr Ferrer.

Only one of the six sick people has been hospitalized, the others are confined to their homes with medical monitoring.

In New York, the new patients are family members and a neighbor of a patient already tested positive for coronavirus.

The nine victims of the epidemic registered to date on American soil lived in Washington State (northwest). The majority were elderly or in poor health.

© 2020 AFP