Search Is On for America’s Earliest Coronavirus Deaths (November?)

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Medical investigators are looking for evidence that Covid-19 killed people as far back as November

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The first known death caused by the new coronavirus in Chicago occurred in mid-March. But the medical examiner’s office in Cook County, which includes the city, now plans on poring over records of much earlier cases in search of evidence that people may have died from Covid-19 as far back as November.

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Across the U.S., health investigators have launched efforts to find previously unidentified deaths from Covid-19, in some cases looking far back enough to potentially rewrite the timeline of when the coronavirus first came to the country and began killing Americans. Public-health officials and scientists say identifying the earliest deaths and infections in the U.S. is critical to understanding fully how the virus was transmitted and how deadly it is.

Investigators in New York, Seattle, Massachusetts and Connecticut are among those looking at past cases. Currently the earliest known death from Covid-19 in the U.S. occurred Feb. 6 in Santa Clara County, Calif

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It’s possible that there were deaths before what is understood to be the first death,” said Matthew Memoli, the principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health study that aims to quantify the number of undetected infections in the U.S. “Some of the earliest reports in China are from the fall, and you have plenty of people traveling back to the U.S. all the time.”

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The Santa Clara case involved a 57-year-old woman who died of a heart attack at her home. The county confirmed late last month that the underlying cause was Covid-19.

Michelle Jorden, Santa Clara County’s chief medical examiner, said the deceased woman, Patricia Dowd, had no underlying health conditions or recent history of travel, meaning she likely contracted the virus as it circulated in the region.

“Wow, that was my reaction. Wow,” Dr. Jorden said of the moment she learned that tissue from three previously undiagnosed cases, including Ms. Dowd, had tested positive for Covid-19.

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Link may be behind a paywall. Further, the article never points out a specific case that is thought to be Covid19 related in November
Nonetheless,I know a number of people who claim they had this back in January here in Alabama.