COVID-19 Appeared Earlier Than Previously Thought

Wisconsin woman who died in January 2020 is one of six people across the country whose deaths have been retroactively linked to COVID-19, suggesting the coronavirus turned up in parts of the country earlier than originally believed.

The San Jose Mercury News reported that death certificates in six states “have been quietly amended to list COVID-19 as a contributing factor, suggesting the virus’s deadly path quickly reached beyond coastal regions that were the country’s early known hotspots.”

The added Wisconsin death occurred Jan. 22, 2020, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) database that tracks all known infections and deaths from the coronavirus. The Mercury News reported that the death involved a woman between 50 and 59 years old.

The Wisconsin Examiner asked DHS officials to comment on the death and its potential significance in understanding the spread of the virus in the state, but the department has not yet made anyone available to discuss it.

In addition to Wisconsin, the other five states with updated information are Alabama, California, Georgia, Kansas and Oklahoma.

The National Center for Health Statistics confirmed to the Mercury News that the deaths had been intentionally updated to reflect their link to COVID-19, the newspaper reported, but “what led a coroner or doctor to make such a significant and possibly historic change in these cases is unclear.”

The newly reclassified deaths “would dramatically revise the timeline of COVID’s arrival in the United States,” the Mercury News report stated, quoting researchers who said they believed the virus had been circulating in the U.S. earlier than had been publicly reported previously.

COVID-19 appeared earlier in Wisconsin, elsewhere than previously thought was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner.