Was the coronavirus already in the United States earlier than previously believed?
When the United States has already exceeded 600,000 deaths from Covid-19, a new study suggests that the virus had already reached the country earlier than previously thought. Apparently, there were patients with the new coronavirus in December 2019, weeks before the health authorities detected the first cases in the country, according to the new analysis, based on blood samples from 24,000 Americans. Research results are not final, and some experts are skeptical, but federal health authorities are gradually accepting a schedule according to which there were a small number of cases of Covid-19 in the United States earlier than previously announced. The studies are pretty consistent, said Natalie Thornburg of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There were likely isolated and sporadic cases here earlier than we thought, but it wasnt widespread until the end of February, added Thornburg, senior investigator for respiratory immunology at the CDC. A sign warns of the dangers of the coronavirus, at the entrance of a Missourri state government building in Jefferson City, this Tuesday. Photo: AP  The coronavirus pandemic broke out in Wuhan, China in late 2019. Officially, the first case detected in the United States is considered to be a man who traveled from Wuhan to Washington state on January 15, 2020 and visited a clinic on January 19. of that month. CDC experts initially estimated that the outbreak within the United States broke out within a three-week period from mid-January to early February of last year. But more recent research  including some from the CDC  pointed to a presence of the virus on US soil before then. Ambulances in front of a hospital in New York, in April 2020, at one of the peaks of the pandemic. The country reportedly had cases in December 2019. Photo: AFP  Previous suspicions  A CDC study published in December 2020 that analyzed 7,000 blood samples donated to the Red Cross indicates that the virus was in national territory even in mid-December 2019. The most recent study, published by the specialized journala Clinical Infectious Diseases, was conducted by a team that included experts from the National Institutes of Health. Analyzed blood samples from more than 24,000 people from all over the national territory, collected in the first three months of 2020 as part of a long-term study to track the health of 1 million Americans. Like the CDC study, this one was looking for antibodies in the blood that would give away the presence of the coronavirus even two weeks after infection. According to the study, nine participants  five from Illinois and one each from Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin  had the coronavirus before any cases were reported in those states. More than 600,000 dead  With vaccination progressing at an accelerated pace and a number of cases falling, much of the country is now beginning to shed its restrictions to curb the virus. But deaths and coronavirus infections are still accumulating. Although vaccination advances in the United States, thousands of new infections and deaths are still registered. Photo: The New York Times  This Tuesday, Johns Hopkins University, which has kept the figures around the world since the beginning of the pandemic, announced that deaths in the United States exceeded 600,000. A reminder that Hundreds of Americans continue to die daily from the pandemic despite the vaccination campaign. This sad milestone, as President Joe Biden called it, comes as the country tries to return to normalcy. California, the nations most populous state, lifted nearly all restrictions on Tuesday. And 70% of New York State citizens have already been inoculated with at least one dose, allowing the governor to announce the lifting of the latest restrictions. The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, announced Tuesday the lifting of much of the restrictions in the state. It means that we can return to the life we knew, announced Governor Andrew Cuomo. The rules on limits to the number of people in a single place, and those that required businesses to perform deep cleaning or take the temperature of their customers, are immediately lifted, he detailed. The rules on physical distancing are also suspended, or those that required businesses to limit their clientele and keep people with a separation of at least 2 meters. Some standards are still in force, for example that of wearing the mask in schools, subways, large theaters, homeless shelters, hospitals, nursing homes and prisons. Source: The Associated Press