First U.S. COVID-19 death came as early as Feb. 6: New autopsy result

The record for first COVID-19 death in the U.S. has been updated to February 6, weeks earlier than the previously known date of February 29.

This may indicate that the deadly disease existed in the U.S. much earlier than initially thought.

Health officials in Santa Clara County, California, examined tissue samples of a person who died at home on February 6 and confirmed

that person was infected with COVID-19, the coronavirus-caused disease that has spread across the world killing more than 160,000 people so far.

The person had no travel record that would have led to direct infection of the disease, Dr. Sara Cody, health officer for the county, told a press conference.

This means the person likely caught the virus through community spread. That is to say, the disease existed in the community before the person became sick.

"Each of these deaths... are really like iceberg tips," Dr. Cody explained. "There must have been a somewhat significant degree of community transmission."

It is still hard for health researchers to find the actual patient zero in the U.S. because many people were infected with normal influenza in December 2019 and January 2020.

"It may have been part of our influenza numbers because it looks a lot like influenza. [It's] really difficult to pick those things apart," Dr. Cody said.

Dr. Cody's opinion was echoed by Dr. Ashish K. Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.

"We really need to now go back, look at a lot more cases from January – even December – and try to sort out when did we first really encounter this virus in the United States," Jha told CNN.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)