California's Santa Clara County announced Tuesday that autopsies had uncovered three early deaths from the COVID-19 coronavirus, including a person who died at home on Feb. 6. Previously, the earliest recorded U.S. death from COVID-19 was Feb. 28 in Kirkland, Washington. Since deaths usually occur about month after exposure to the coronavirus, the implication is that COVID-19 was spreading in the Bay Area by early January. The coronavirus was first confirmed to have entered the U.S. on Jan. 21.
The autopsies also found the coronavirus in a second person who died at home on Feb. 17 and another resident who died March 6, three days earlier than the previously known first COVID-19 death in Santa Clara County. That March 9 death prompted the Silicon Valley area to ban public gatherings, and it was one of five Bay Area counties to institute the nation's first lockdown on March 16.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
FDA approves painkiller said to thwart addictionSpeed Read Suzetrigine, being sold as Journavx, is the first new pharmaceutical pain treatment approved by the FDA in 20 years
-
Study finds possible alternative abortion pillSpeed Read An emergency contraception (morning-after) pill called Ella could be an alternative to mifepristone for abortions
-
HMPV is spreading in China but there's no need to worryThe Explainer Respiratory illness is common in winter
-
Marty Makary: the medical contrarian who will lead the FDAIn the Spotlight What Johns Hopkins surgeon and commentator Marty Makary will bring to the FDA
-
California declares bird flu emergencySpeed Read The emergency came hours after the nation's first person with severe bird flu infection was hospitalized
-
Bird flu one mutuation from human threat, study findsSpeed Read A Scripps Research Institute study found one genetic tweak of the virus could enable its spread among people
-
Dark chocolate tied to lower diabetes riskSpeed Read The findings were based on the diets of about 192,000 US adults over 34 years
-
ACA opens 2025 enrollment, enters 2024 raceSpeed Read Mike Johnson promises big changes to the Affordable Care Act if Trump wins the election
