bp Top Coronavirus Doctor in Wuhan Says High Blood Pressure Is Major Death Risk Patients with hypertension appear to be at a higher risk of dying from the coronavirus, said a top Chinese intensive care doctor who’s been treating critically ill patients since mid-January. While there’s been no published research yet explaining why, Chinese doctors working in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the virus first emerged, have noticed that infected patients with that underlying illness are more likely to slip into severe distress and die. Of a group of 170 patients who died in January in Wuhan -- the first wave of casualties caused by a pathogen that’s now raced around the world -- nearly half had hypertension. cdn1 The first COVID-19-related death in Canada has been recorded in B.C. A man in his 80s who lived at a North Vancouver nursing home died late Sunday, according to provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. The man had pre-existing health problems prior to contracting the coronavirus, Henry said. The Lynn Valley Care Centre facility was identified as a COVID-19 hotspot three days ago. "This is obviously a very sad day for all of us, but especially for the family and loved ones," said B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix at a news conference in Victoria on Monday. Henry said a female resident of the home in her 70s has also tested positive for the virus and is in stable condition.

italy Coronavirus: Italy death toll soars amid travel ban The number of people to have died from the coronavirus in Italy has shot up by 133 in a day to 366, officials say. The total number of infections leapt 25% to 7,375 from 5,883, according to the Civil Protection agency. The jump in figures comes as millions adapt to radical measures introduced on Sunday in an attempt to contain the outbreak. Up to 16 million people in Lombardy and 14 provinces need special permission to travel under new quarantine rules. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also announced the closure of schools, gyms, museums, nightclubs and other venues across the whole country. The restrictions will last until 3 April. us-650-26 Coronavirus Live Updates: Trump to Discuss Economic Steps; Italy Halts Most Travel; Stocks and Oil Prices Plunge The United States faces an accelerating pace of new coronavirus case reports as well as the prospect of more sweeping measures to fight the spread of the virus. On Monday, the national total of infections surpassed 650 and the death toll hit 26. A number of new cases have raised concerns about transmission in public places. In Kentucky, a patient who tested positive had worked at a Walmart in Cynthiana, near Lexington, officials said. In Washington, D.C., a church rector who gave communion and shook hands with parishioners at Christ Church Georgetown was identified as a patient, prompting officials to urge hundreds of parishioners to self-quarantine. Italy has recorded more than 9,000 coronavirus infections and 463 deaths — well over half the toll for all of Europe — and the numbers continue to climb fast. Stocks in the United States on Monday suffered their worst single-day decline in more than a decade, as the coronavirus and an oil price war fueled concerns about the state of the global economy. The S&P 500 fell 7.6 percent on Monday, falling so swiftly in early trading that trading was briefly halted early in the day — a rare occurrence meant to prevent stocks from crashing. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2,000 points, or 7.8 percent. The S&P index ended the day 19 percent below the peak it reached last month. A decline of 20 percent from that high would be seen as marking the end of the bull market that began exactly 11 years ago. The drop was the worst for stocks in the United States since December 2008, when the country was still reeling from the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the housing crisis that dragged the economy into a recession. Stock markets in Asia and Europe also suffered steep losses on Monday. The selling in stocks came after Saudi Arabia and Russia set off an oil price war over the weekend. Prices already had been falling as investors fretted that a looming recession triggered by the coronavirus was depressing demand. But on Monday, prices plunged more than 20 percent, their sharpest decline since the Persian Gulf war of 1991. That led to a collapse in share prices of companies and businesses that service the oil and gas sector.