SILENT SPREAD

New Tests Push Back Date of First U.S. Coronavirus Death by Almost Three Weeks

A Bay Area resident who died Feb. 6 had the disease. Previously, it was believed the first U.S. death was on Feb 26.

The novel coronavirus was likely spreading unrecognized in California much earlier than was previously known, experts said Tuesday night, after officials in Santa Clara County announced that two residents there died of COVID-19 in early and mid-February, making them the earliest known victims of the pandemic in the United States. Until now it was believed the first coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S. came on Feb. 26, in Washington state. However, autopsies have showed that two people who died at their homes on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17 were infected with the virus. They appear to have contracted the disease in the community. “Each one of those deaths is probably the tip of an iceberg of unknown size,” Sara Cody, the county’s chief medical officer, said in an interview. “It feels quite significant.”