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First death from coronavirus announced in U.S.
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Clarification: This story has been updated to correct the gender of the person who died in Washington state. 

WASHINGTON – In a rare televised news conference from the White House on Saturday, President Donald Trump said the risk to Americans from coronavirus remains low and that he would meet with pharmaceutical companies next week to discuss development of a vaccine.

His comments came as the first U.S. death from the disease was reported.

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Trump and Vice President Mike Pence also announced new travel restrictions to combat the virus, which has infected more than 84,000 people and killed nearly 3,000 people globally.

An existing travel ban on Iran will be expanded to prevent any foreign national who has been in that country in the past 14 days from entering the U.S. The administration also advised Americans not to travel to regions of Italy and South Korea that have been impacted by the virus.

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Passengers wear protective face masks at the airport, following the outbreak of the coronavirus, in Najaf, Iraq on March 5.
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An almost empty British Airways passenger plane flies from Milan to London on March 5, in Milan, Italy. 
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A man wearing a mask as a preventive measure against the coronavirus gestures as he speaks with a Palestinian policeman outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 5. The Church is to temporarily close after a suspected outbreak of coronavirus, the Palestinian health ministry announced.
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A baby wearing a face mask inside a stroller is seen in Shanghai, China on March 5.
 
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Thai officials prepare sets of face masks and hand sanitizers for sale at the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) pharmacy in Bangkok, Thailand on March 5. 
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A man uses his phone to take photographs of posters explaining the symptoms of coronavirus inside hospital premises in Kolkata, India on March 5.
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Postal workers disinfect packages from overseas to contain the spread of coronavirus in Bangkok, Thailand on March 5.
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In the aftermath of the state's first death from the coronavirus, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency to deal with the virus at a news conference in Sacramento on March 4.
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A man wearing a protective mask walks in Jerusalem, Israel on March 4.
 
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President Donald Trump, with Vice President Mike Pence, speaks during a coronavirus briefing with Airline CEOs in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on March 4 in Washington D.C.
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Thai monks wearing masks arrive from India at Suvarnabhumi International airport on March 4 in Bangkok, Thailand.
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An Indonesian health worker wearing protective gear inspects quarantine rooms at a hospital in Aceh, Indonesia on March 4.
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Juventus stadium closed to fans for 30 days, due to the Italian government's decision to play matches in the Italian Serie A championship without fans, to contain the spread of the coronavirus in Torino, Italy on March 4.
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A couple shops with surgical masks as fears of the coronavirus spreading through the U.S. increase on March 4 in New York City.
 
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An employee of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health wearing a mask and protective clothing takes a man's temperature on March 4.
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Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea on March 4.
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Indian security guards wearing protective masks stand inside a private school that was closed over fear of a coronavirus outbreak, in Noida, India on March 4. The school was closed after some students and teachers attended the birthday party of a boy whose father tested positive for COVID-19 after traveling back from Italy.
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Employees from a disinfection service company sanitize a KTX train at Seoul Railway Station on March 4.
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President Donald Trump is flanked by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and National Institutes of Health Doctor Kizzmekia Corbett, research fellow at the NIH Vaccine Research Center, as he listens to Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci following a briefing at the Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland on March 3.
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A shop offering people free hand washing on Oxford Street in London, England on March 3.
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A passenger originating from China has his body temperature taken upon arrival on an international flight as he waits to be screened for signs of the coronavirus at Entebbe Airport in Entenbbe, Uganda on March 3.
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A sign at a Boots chemist after the retailer ran out of hand sanitizer on March 3 in Cardiff, Wales.
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Tourists wearing protective masks visit the Shwedagon pagoda on March 3 in Yangon, Myanmar.
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In the Central Medical Laboratory of the St. Georg Hospital in Leipzig, Germany, a medical-technical assistant prepares patient samples for coronavirus testing on March 3.
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A medical staff member checks information of a patient as patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus leave from Wuhan No. 5 Hospital to Leishenshan Hospital, the newly-built hospital for the COVID-19 coronavirus patients on March 3.
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Paramedics in protective suits and Israelis wearing masks and gloves stand near a dedicated polling station where people under quarantine from the coronavirus can vote in Israel's national election, in Tel Aviv, on Mar. 2.
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Harborview Medical Center's home assessment team, including (L to R) Michelle Steik, Lucy Greenfield, and Krista Reitberg prepare to visit the home of a person potentially exposed to novel coronavirus, at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington on Feb. 29.
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Health workers wearing protective gear check Nepali citizens evacuated from China as they are under quarantine following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, in Nepal, on Feb. 29.
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French government officials, including French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (1st-L), French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire (2nd-L), French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (3rd-L), French Health and Solidarity Minister Olivier Veran (4th-L) and French President Emmanuel Macron (3rd-R) attend a defense council concerning the coronavirus outbreak, in Paris, France, on Feb. 29.
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A tourist affected by coronavirus is transferred to a hospital from the hotel H10 Costa Adeje Palace, which is on lockdown after novel coronavirus has been confirmed in Adeje, on island of Tenerife, Spain, on Feb. 29.
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Employees work on the production line of an antimalarial drug that Chinese officials said has curative effect on the novel coronavirus disease, at a pharmaceutical company in Nantong, Jiangsu province, China, on Feb. 27. 
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Doctors at West China Hospital of Sichuan University use 5G technology to diagnose COVID-19 patients on Feb. 27, in Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China. 
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Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez, Mexico's Undersecretary of Health Prevention and Promotion, holds a news conference on information about the new coronavirus, in Mexico City, on Feb. 27.
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Passengers remain onboard the MSC Meraviglia cruise ship in Cozumel, Mexico, on Feb. 27.  A cruise carrying 6,000 people which was turned away by Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after a crew member tested positive for flu, has docked in Mexico. 
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Policemen guard the entrance of a school, after authorities put the school under isolation because of suspicions of a coronavirus case, after a teacher returned from a travel in Northern Italy, in Vienna, Austria on Feb. 26
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Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan is seen on a screen as he delivers the annual budget at the legislative council in Hong Kong on Feb. 26. Hong Kong's government said it will give a 10,000 HKD (1,280 USD) handout to seven million permanent residents in a bid to jump-start a recession-hit economy after the coronavirus outbreak.
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Figures depicting the coronavirus vs "carneval virus" are pictured during the "Rosenmontag" (Rose Monday) parade on Feb. 24 in Duesseldorf, Germany.
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A man collects bags of his food order as a worker places it in a basket to prevent human contact following the coronavirus outbreak, in Beijing, on Feb. 23.
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Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers pose during an emergency meeting with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the coronavirus outbreak in Vientiane, Laos, on Feb. 20.
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A Chinese tourist (front right), who was tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus and was isolated for treatment, receives a kiss from Sri Lankan Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi and medical staff after she was discharged from the hospital near Colombo on Feb. 19. The 43-year-old woman, the first and only COVID-19 patient in Sri Lanka, was admitted to the hospital on January 25 and tested positive for COVID-19 two days later.
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Workers go about their duties at a section of the Leishenshan Hospital, the newly-built makeshift hospital for novel coronavirus patients, in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on Feb. 18. The first group of patients infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus was discharged from Leishenshan Hospital on Feb. 18, according to local media. 

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Jay Butler, Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases addresses the media about response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19 ) as Senior Adviser Ed Rouse looks on, at the Emergency Operations Center inside The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on Feb. 13 in Atlanta.
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The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, on Jan. 29.

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Though he continued to insist that the risk to Americans from the disease remains low, Trump acknowledged that additional cases in the U.S. are likely. Public health officials have said it could take months to develop a vaccine, but Trump said plans are moving quickly and said he would meet with pharmaceutical companies at the White House on Monday.

"There's no need to panic," he said. "This is something that's being handled professionally."

Trump's remarks came just hours after, speaking at a political rally in South Carolina, he described the coronavirus outbreak as a "new hoax" perpetuated by Democrats and suggested they were overlooking the effort his administration has made to confront the virus.

Trump, who was surrounded by Pence, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and other members of the coronavirus task force, struck a more subdued tone at Saturday's news conference. He insisted he was not describing the virus as a "hoax" but that he was referring to his belief that Democrats are using the outbreak to try tohurt him politically.

"This is very serious," he said.

Shortly before Trump spoke, health officials confirmed that a person in Washington state had died from the virus, the first death from the virus in the U.S.

The person died in King County, Washington, the state's Department of Health said.

Trump described the deceased patient as a woman who was "a medically high risk patient in her mid-50s." But King county officials said later, at a CDC briefing, that the patient was a man.

The woman is alive.

CDC director Robert Redfield tweeted Saturday that the agency “erroneously identified the patient as a female” in a briefing with the president and vice president. 

So far, 22 patients in the U.S. have been diagnosed with the virus. Four are seriously ill, Trump said.

Earlier, health officials in California, Oregon and Washington state  reported four new apparent cases of the novel coronavirus, raising concerns it is spreading through West Coast communities.

Authorities said three of the cases – an older Northern California woman with chronic health conditions, a high school student in Everett, Washington, and an employee at a Portland, Oregon-area school – had not recently traveled overseas or had any known close contact with a traveler or an infected person.

Fact Check: Here's what President Trump has said about the coronavirus outbreak 

Trump's news conference marked the second time this week the president addressed reporters in the White House briefing room, an extremely rare occurrence throughout his presidency.

During an hourlong press conference Wednesday, Trump conflicted with health officials in his administration by saying he didn’t believe the spread of the virus was “inevitable.” Trump announced at that news conference that he was putting Pence in charge of coordinating the administration's response to the virus.

Conributing: Doug Stanglin, Grace Hauck

Coronavirus, explained: Everything to know about COVID-19, the deadly virus alarming the world

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'No need to panic': President Trump says risk to Americans is low as first coronavirus death reported in US

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