Covid-19 may have been in California since 2019 say experts
While the United States is fighting to control the spreading of the coronavirus, some health experts are reporting the outbreak could have started in late 2019.
Health officials in the US are battling to control the current outbreak of the coronavirus while others are pointing the finger as to when Covid-19 actually breached the shoeres of the United States. It has been reported that in California Covid-19 could have been present in the Bay Area long before they started looking for it.
Santa Clara County’s Chief Executive Dr. Jeff Smith suggested that the coronavirus could have been circulating in the Bay Area since late December 2019. That conclusion was reached based on data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and local health departments.
Dr. Smith believes that efforts to to identify Covid-19 on time were compromised because of the severe flu season that hit the Bay Area and the overlap symptoms with coronavirus. At the time there were guidelines that only travelers who had recently visited Wuhan should be screened upon arrival to the U.S.
In late February doctors tested a hospitalized woman who had been sick for weeks and she became the first case in the Bay Area. Now researchers are looking at blood banks in Los Angeles and San Francisco among other major cities to see if lingering antibodies can show them what was missed.
Cases and deaths of Covid-19 in California
As of April 14 California has 24,421 confirmed cases, 810 have recovered and 731 have died. New York is currently the epicenter of the outbreak and in the whole country there are 603,496 confirmed cases.