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The Oregon Health Authority on Saturday announced four new probable cases of the novel coronavirus in Oregon, more than doubling the number.
One of the four people diagnosed with COVID-19 lives in Washington County, on Portland's western edge, while two live in Jackson County in Southern Oregon. The fourth lives in Klamath County—like Jackson County's it's on the California border.
Health officials say three of the four cases were related to international travel, while one was probably contracted locally.
The announcement comes one week after the first cases were announced in Oregon. The Oregon Health Authority said the positive diagnoses came from 42 samples tested from 22 people, a number at the upper limit of what state officials say their labs can handle each day.
Shortly before midnight Friday, Clark County officials announced the first novel coronavirus case in Vancouver, Wash.
The new cases arrive as Washington state and California have emerged as national hotspots of the disease.
Washington has reported 79 cases and California 60, says Johns Hopkins University. Fourteen people have died in Washington, and one in California. A cruise ship is sitting off the California coast with 3,500 people in it—21 of them with COVID-19—as officials refuse to allow it to dock.
President Donald Trump said Friday he didn't want the passengers to disembark. "I like the numbers being where they are," Trump said at a Friday press conference. "I don't need the numbers to double because of one ship that wasn't our fault."
In Seattle, where a Starbucks Coffee employee tested positive last night, commerce has all but halted. Amazon and Microsoft have instructed most employees to work from home, and the University of Washington has closed its classrooms and moved students to online courses.