According to a report in the New York Times, a person who passed away in California in early February had the coronavirus and died before the two deaths in the Seattle area reported on Feb. 29.
The New York Times reports that the medical examiner-coroner of Santa Clara County announced on Tuesday that autopsies of two people who died at their homes on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17 showed that the individuals were infected with the virus.
Dr. Jeffrey V. Smith, the Santa Clara county executive said that these reported deaths in California “reveal that the virus was around for a long time.”