Data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as state and local health departments in California, point toward signs that the coronavirus may have been infecting Americans weeks earlier than previously believed.
The first two cases of COVID-19 in California were officially announced on Jan. 26. In both instances, they were travelers coming from the outbreak epicenter of Wuhan, China. They had been in Los Angeles and Orange counties. However, there were two deaths of other people in the San Francisco Bay area from February and March that have scientists believing that the killer virus may have been in California as early as December.
“The virus was freewheeling in our community and probably has been here for quite some time,” Dr. Jeff Smith, a physician and chief executive of Santa Clara County government said. Smith noted that COVID-19 was likely in California “back in December,” as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
“This wasn’t recognized because we were having a severe flu season,” Smith explained. “Symptoms are very much like the flu. If you got a mild case of COVID, you didn’t really notice. You didn’t even go to the doctor. The doctor maybe didn’t even do it because they presumed it was the flu.” – READ MORE
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