Recent insights have shown that US citizens were at risk long before it was initially believed. A study that was published on 15 June 2021 in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal. This study shows that out of 24,079 participants’ blood samples that were taken between Jan. 2, 2020 and March 18, 2020, 9 of those were seropositive. At least two samples were dated in January of 2020.
The findings seem to reaffirm that mass testing for future viral outbreaks should be done as early as possible. Many symptomatic Americans were untested because the tests had been restricted to those who had travelled to an infected country.
This evidence shows that there was a slow progression of cases instead of a sudden outbreak. It is unknown at this time whether the participants had travelled to any of the Covid-19 hot spots.
The nine participants who showed infection are from different areas of the U.S. and were not from the larger cities from which the first official cases were reported. Three of the nine samples were from Illinois, and were collected weeks before the first diagnosed person in that state.
Bottom Line: The ethnicity of the seropositive varied, five were African-American, two Caucasian, and two Hispanic. Only two of the nine had sought medical help, but were undiagnosed. Another was symptomatic but did not seek medical attention.
