COVID-19 Was Around in The US Earlier Than Experts Initially Thought

The first cases of COVID-19 from the North American territory were reported in January, and we all know what came afterwards. The United States became devastated by the pandemic disease, as they’re easily over 100,000 cases of infection every single day since November 4. Furthermore, over 274,000 souls have left this world because of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Some people had speculated that the ongoing pandemic actually started in the US instead of China, and such claims are surely unreliable. But a recent study made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers a new perspective on how the pandemic began in the States.

The first COVID-19 case from the US started in December 2019

The researchers tested samples from 7,389 regular blood donations that were collected by the American Red Cross. Their goal was to determine if antibodies from SARS-CoV-2 were present before the first identified case from the United States.

The researchers wrote in their study paper:

Some reports have suggested the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into the [United States] may have occurred earlier than initially recognized, though widespread community transmission was not likely until late February,

The samples analyzed were gathered from donors who lived in nine American states: Washington, Connecticut, Iowa, California, Oregon, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Scientists at the CDC tested more than 7,000 samples, and 106 of them had evidence of infection.

Worldometers.info reveals that the US remains the hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic, as there’s a total of almost 14 million infections. Fortunately, over 8.2 million patients had already been recovered. The most affected American state remains Texas, followed by California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Georgia, and so on. The least affected state is Vermont, as it reported a total of only 4,239 infections and 72 deaths.

 

Source: bostonglobe.com