2 people are now being tested for coronavirus in Philadelphia, officials announce

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PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Health Department says two people are currently undergoing testing for the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Officials cleared one patient under investigation Wednesday evening, just one day after announcing they would be testing that person.

No cases have been confirmed in Pennsylvania or Delaware at this time. New Jersey health officials have tested at least eight people in the past week. Two of those tested are confirmed presumptive positive.

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus climbed to 12 Thursday with a victim succumbing in California — the nation's first reported fatality outside Washington state.

Officials in Placer County, northwest of Sacramento, said an elderly person who tested positive for COVID-19 Tuesday after returning from a San Francisco-Mexico cruise had died. The victim had underlying health conditions, authorities said.

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Washington state also announced another death, bringing its total to 11. Most of those who died were residents of a nursing home in Kirkland, a suburb east of Seattle. At least 70 cases have been reported in Washington state, where researchers say the virus may have been circulating undetected for weeks.

Elsewhere on the East Coast, the total number of confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus in New York State reached 22 on Thursday afternoon.

With more than 90,000 confirmed cases worldwide, a growing list of nations are preparing for the illness to breach their borders. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned the American public to take a potential outbreak of the disease seriously.