COVID-19 May Have Been In US As Early As December 2019, Study Says
HUESCA, SPAIN – NOVEMBER 19: Several nurses prepare to enter the ICU of the San Jorge Hospital on November 19, 2020 in Huesca, Spain. Marta Polo is an ICU nurse at San Jorge Hospital, where her husband Pablo Sánchez-Rubio works on the wards as a doctor. Every day they juggle their shifts at the hospital, where they both tend to COVID-19 patients, with the needs of their young family. Like many countries in Europe, Spain is facing a second wave of coronavirus infections, which is putting pressure on the country’s health services. COVID-19 cases in the Spain have risen above 1.5 million, with a daily death rate rising to its highest levels since April.(Photo by Alvaro Calvo/Getty Images)
A recent study conducted by Oxford University's Clinical Infectious Diseases revealed that COVID-19 was likely in the United States as early as December 2019.
The study published earlier this week analyzed blood collected by the American Cross between December 13th, 2019 to January 17th, 2020. The study revealed that 106 out of 7,389 blood samples contained COVID-19 antibodies.
Although COVID-19 was first identified in Wuhan, China back in December of 2019, the US did not confirm a case of coronavirus until January 20th, 2020, according to the CDC.
The blood was collected from donors in California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.
