Research and information show hidden outbreaks likely occurred 'far earlier' in US

A model of the spread of the disease by researchers at Northeastern University shows that by the time New York City confirmed its first case of the coronavirus on March 1, thousands of infections were already silently spreading through the city, according to a report by The New York Times.

"Hidden outbreaks were also spreading almost completely undetected in Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle, long before testing showed that each city had a major problem," the report said.

The New York Times report said that in five major US cities, as of March 1, there were only 23 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus, but according to the Northeastern model, there could have actually been about 28,000 infections in those cities by then.

The Northeastern University researchers found that, even in early February, the virus was not only likely to be spreading in multiple American cities, but also seeding blooms of infection elsewhere in the United States.

The new information released by local public health officials this week also shows that the novel coronavirus spread on the west coast of the United States weeks earlier than initially believed.

Health authorities of Santa Clara County in the western US state of California confirmed Tuesday that two patients had died of COVID-19 at least three weeks before the first known US death from the novel coronavirus disease on Feb 29 in Kirkland in Washington State.

According to a statement issued by the Northern California county's Emergency Operations Center, the Medical Examiner-Coroner performed autopsies on two individuals who died at home in early February, and received results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday, which showed both tested positive for COVID-19.

"As the Medical Examiner-Coroner continues to carefully investigate deaths throughout the county, we anticipate additional deaths from COVID-19 will be identified," the statement said.

Patricia Dowd, a 57-year-old San Jose woman, died at home on Feb 6.

Jeffrey V. Smith, Santa Clara county executive, told Xinhua in an email interview that "so far, this is the earliest death in the United States".

Dowd and another 69-year-old man who died at home on Feb 17 had no "significant travel history," and they presumably caught the virus through community spread, said the county's public health officer Dr. Sara Cody.

"These patients apparently contracted the illness from community spread. This suggests that the virus was circulating in the Bay Area in January at least, probably earlier," Smith told Xinhua.

Previously, the first known US death from the virus was on Feb 29 in Kirkland in Washington state.