Two California residents died in early and mid-February from the coronavirus, Santa Clara County officials said, making them the earliest known victims of the health crisis in the United States.
The newly reported deaths suggest COVID-19 was spreading through the country earlier than previously believed. The first deaths in the U.S. were previously believed to be two people who had died in the Seattle area on Feb. 26.
“It was probably around unrecognized for quite some time,” Jeffrey Smith, a Santa Clara County executive and doctor, told the New York Times late Tuesday.
California officials said the autopsies of two people who died at their homes on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17 showed they were infected with COVID-19.
Santa Clara County’s chief medical officer Sara Cody told the New York Times that the two individuals who died did not have any known travel histories that could have exposed them to the virus, which originated in China. She said they are presumed to have become infected in the community.
