Coronavirus may have have arrived in Ohio 2 months earlier than first confirmed case
![Antibody test.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PV7W7sMXC5M9BbjJsYDAu7-415-80.jpg)
The coronavirus may have found its way into Ohio far earlier than previously thought, antibody tests suggest. The Columbus Dispatch reports that six people who in January reported symptoms apparently consistent with COVID-19 tested positive for antibodies. The earliest sign of illness was reportedly Jan. 7, which is more than two months before the state's first confirmed cases on March 9.
There's a lot of uncertainty about the "probable" cases, and the news doesn't mean the virus was spreading rapidly throughout their community at that point (the scientific consensus remains that the virus was almost certainly present in the United States in January, but that cases were likely limited). It wasn't revealed if the individuals had traveled anywhere or had connections to other cases, and, of course, some antibody tests have produced high false-positive rates.
Still, it's another example of the virus possibly establishing itself at earlier points around the country — in California, the first COVID-19-related fatality actually occurred three weeks earlier than initially reported, while a woman who returned to Minnesota after developing symptoms in Japan in January believes the virus spread throughout her circle of family and friends around that time, although only her mother eventually received a test in March, which turned out positive. Outside of the U.S., a man was retroactively found to have had COVID-19 in France in late December, despite not having traveled out of the country recently.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
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.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
Why is China stockpiling resources?
The Explainer The superpower has been amassing huge reserves of commodities at great cost despite its economic downturn
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
Paraguay's dangerous dalliance with cryptocurrency
Under The Radar Overheating Paraguayans are pushing back over power outages caused by illegal miners
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
The Week contest: Tattoo prediction
Puzzles and Quizzes
By The Week US Published
-
Puffed rice and yoga: inside the collapsed tunnel where Indian workers await rescue
Speed Read Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel are suffering from dysentery and anxiety over their rescue
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in Morocco
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Mexico's next president will almost certainly be its 1st female president
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
North Korea's Kim to visit Putin in eastern Russia to discuss arms sales for Ukraine war, U.S. says
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Gabon's military leader sworn in following coup in latest African uprising
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstances
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governor
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published