Coronavirus Confirmed in U.S. Longer Than Initially Believed

New research has confirmed the coronavirus was in the U.S. weeks before initially thought. On February 6th, a seemingly healthy 57-year-old woman from California “suddenly died” after developing “flu-like symptoms”. This was around the same time the virus first made its way to the U.S., but testing was extremely limited. She did not meet the CDC’s strict requirements and therefore was assumed to have passed from a heart attack. Following her death, was that of a 67-year-old man on February 17th. Since being tested, they have become the first confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., predating the original by three weeks. The number of cases in the U.S. has surpassed 852,000 with 48,300 deaths. Worldwide, there are 2.6 million confirmed cases and almost 187,000 deaths. Those numbers are expected to increase dramatically as more deaths are investigated and more antibody tests performed.