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Coronavirus Florida: Patients in Florida had symptoms as early as January
Florida on Monday night removed data from the Department of Health website that showed 171 patients had coronavirus symptoms or positive test results in January and February, before any cases were announced to the public.
By Chris Persaud
Posted May 5, 2020 at 7:31 AM
Source:https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/...s-in-florida-had-symptoms-as-early-as-january
The novel coronavirus could have infected as many as 171 people in Florida as long as two months before officials announced it had come to the state, a Palm Beach Post analysis of state records shows.
Patients reported symptoms of the deadly virus as early as Jan. 1, when the disease was thought to be limited to China, Department of Health records reveal. The records don’t say if patients reported those symptoms to the state until months later or if local offices of the health department actively investigated the illnesses at the time or a combination of both.
The state pulled the records off its website late Monday without explanation. Department of Health officials and the governor’s office did not answer detailed questions on Tuesday.
Florida announced its first two presumed coronavirus cases on March 1. At the time, cases were not considered confirmed until reviewed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC confirmed those first two cases, in Manatee and Hillsborough counties, on March 2. The state now has recorded more than 37,000 cases of the deadly virus.
But at the time of the first two cases, 171 people across 40 counties who would later test positive for COVID-19 said they had suffered symptoms of the disease, state records show. Three of those patients were in Palm Beach County, which officially didn’t record its first two coronavirus cases until March 13. The county now has more than 3,300 cases.
Until Monday evening, when the state confirmed a coronavirus case, it publicly posted data on each case, without identifying the patient. The publicly shared data included a date that represented one of two things: when the patient first reported feeling symptoms or when the patient received a positive test result.
In the early days of January, it is unlikely patients were tested for the novel coronavirus. Such tests were tightly controlled by the CDC and limited to travelers who had been to Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus originated. None of the 171 patients reported travel to China.
It is not clear from the data how the state treated the patients or even when they found out about their symptoms.
The entire dataset disappeared from the state website Monday only to return after 7:30 p.m. without the information relating to the timing of the symptoms.
An analysis of the state data, which has been downloaded and retained by The Post since the state started posting it in March, found these diverse early cases:
— A 4-year-old Duval County girl started feeling symptoms or had her first positive test on Jan. 1. The state did not officially record her case until April 8.
— An 84-year-old Palm Beach County man who had not traveled, but was hospitalized, had symptoms or a positive result on Feb. 5. But his case was not added to Florida’s coronavirus tally until April 3.
— A 48-year-old Palm Beach County woman whose symptoms or positive test results were reported Feb. 6. Her case was counted on Saturday.
— A 74-year-old Palm Beach County woman with symptoms or a positive result on Feb. 23, whose case was recorded by the state on April 4. She reported no out-of-state travel and she came into contact with someone carrying the virus.
— A 65-year-old man in Broward County who had traveled to the Cayman Islands listed symptoms or a positive test on Jan. 4 but his case was not recorded until March 7.
— A 30-year-old Broward County man, whose symptoms or first positive result came on Feb. 25, died. His case was added March 15.
— A 65-year-old man in Sarasota County who had traveled to California and came into contact with an infected person reported symptoms or had a positive result on Feb. 23. State health officials added his case April 6.
Counties where early cases were reported included Broward (31 cases), Miami-Dade (26), Hillsborough (9), Pinellas (10), Orange (9) and Duval (7) and Martin (one case).
Among the 171 patients were 105 women and 66 men. They ranged in age from 4 to 91.
Even though the disease was thought confined to China before January, most of the early patients hadn’t traveled: 103 reported no travel while just 52 said they had.
Three Florida residents whose testing or symptom dates were in January and February had traveled from Japan, where the Diamond Princess cruise ship sailed from Yokohama on Jan. 20, visiting China and southeast Asia.
More than 700 people on the ship would test positive for coronavirus. The ship was quarantined in early February and its passengers released on Feb. 19.
Only six people in Florida whose tests or symptoms started before March were not Florida residents. Their symptoms or positive results started appearing in mid- to late February. Their cases originated in Orange, Flagler, Sarasota, Hillsborough, St. Johns and Jackson counties.
The first report of a coronavirus-related death in the United States came Feb. 29 in the Seattle area. But medical officials there later learned that the virus had killed two more people on Feb. 26.
And then autopsies conducted in Santa Clara County, Calif., confirmed COVID-19 had killed two residents on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17.
In January, when the United States confirmed its first coronavirus infection — a Washington man who returned home from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus originated — the disease already had spread to thousands of Americans, researchers now estimate.
As of Feb. 4, the CDC had 293 people from 36 states under investigation. It had confirmed 11 cases, nine of whom had been in Wuhan and two patients who had made close contact with travelers.
Doctors in Paris announced on Tuesday they had discovered that a patient admitted to the hospital in December had the virus. The 42-year-old man, who had a dry cough, fever and trouble breathing, said he never went to China, and his last trip overseas was in August to Algeria.
The first official reports of COVID-19 in France came on Jan. 24, attributed to a 48-year-old French citizen who had returned from China days before.
If the disease were present in Florida in the first two months of 2020, it would have been hard for state health officials to trace it, said Dr. Claude Dharamraj, who ran the Pinellas County Health Department until 2015.
A national shortage of coronavirus tests would have made tracing impossible, she said.
“We can contact those who have been exposed, but it does no good when you can’t test,” she said.
The state’s 53 local health departments feed data into a centralized system, she said. Where one county might report the onset of a patient’s symptoms, another might report on when health officials swabbed a patient’s nose. Both events would have been captured in the same column of data.
Noting recent reports of an earlier spread in America, she acknowledged that Floridians could have been suffering earlier than previously thought.
“It’s very possible that in Florida the virus was spreading and people, being at the peak of flu season, probably thought they had the flu,” she said.
Staff writer Lulu Ramadan contributed to this story.
Florida on Monday night removed data from the Department of Health website that showed 171 patients had coronavirus symptoms or positive test results in January and February, before any cases were announced to the public.
By Chris Persaud
Posted May 5, 2020 at 7:31 AM
Source:https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/...s-in-florida-had-symptoms-as-early-as-january
The novel coronavirus could have infected as many as 171 people in Florida as long as two months before officials announced it had come to the state, a Palm Beach Post analysis of state records shows.
Patients reported symptoms of the deadly virus as early as Jan. 1, when the disease was thought to be limited to China, Department of Health records reveal. The records don’t say if patients reported those symptoms to the state until months later or if local offices of the health department actively investigated the illnesses at the time or a combination of both.
The state pulled the records off its website late Monday without explanation. Department of Health officials and the governor’s office did not answer detailed questions on Tuesday.
Florida announced its first two presumed coronavirus cases on March 1. At the time, cases were not considered confirmed until reviewed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC confirmed those first two cases, in Manatee and Hillsborough counties, on March 2. The state now has recorded more than 37,000 cases of the deadly virus.
But at the time of the first two cases, 171 people across 40 counties who would later test positive for COVID-19 said they had suffered symptoms of the disease, state records show. Three of those patients were in Palm Beach County, which officially didn’t record its first two coronavirus cases until March 13. The county now has more than 3,300 cases.
Until Monday evening, when the state confirmed a coronavirus case, it publicly posted data on each case, without identifying the patient. The publicly shared data included a date that represented one of two things: when the patient first reported feeling symptoms or when the patient received a positive test result.
In the early days of January, it is unlikely patients were tested for the novel coronavirus. Such tests were tightly controlled by the CDC and limited to travelers who had been to Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus originated. None of the 171 patients reported travel to China.
It is not clear from the data how the state treated the patients or even when they found out about their symptoms.
The entire dataset disappeared from the state website Monday only to return after 7:30 p.m. without the information relating to the timing of the symptoms.
An analysis of the state data, which has been downloaded and retained by The Post since the state started posting it in March, found these diverse early cases:
— A 4-year-old Duval County girl started feeling symptoms or had her first positive test on Jan. 1. The state did not officially record her case until April 8.
— An 84-year-old Palm Beach County man who had not traveled, but was hospitalized, had symptoms or a positive result on Feb. 5. But his case was not added to Florida’s coronavirus tally until April 3.
— A 48-year-old Palm Beach County woman whose symptoms or positive test results were reported Feb. 6. Her case was counted on Saturday.
— A 74-year-old Palm Beach County woman with symptoms or a positive result on Feb. 23, whose case was recorded by the state on April 4. She reported no out-of-state travel and she came into contact with someone carrying the virus.
— A 65-year-old man in Broward County who had traveled to the Cayman Islands listed symptoms or a positive test on Jan. 4 but his case was not recorded until March 7.
— A 30-year-old Broward County man, whose symptoms or first positive result came on Feb. 25, died. His case was added March 15.
— A 65-year-old man in Sarasota County who had traveled to California and came into contact with an infected person reported symptoms or had a positive result on Feb. 23. State health officials added his case April 6.
Counties where early cases were reported included Broward (31 cases), Miami-Dade (26), Hillsborough (9), Pinellas (10), Orange (9) and Duval (7) and Martin (one case).
Among the 171 patients were 105 women and 66 men. They ranged in age from 4 to 91.
Even though the disease was thought confined to China before January, most of the early patients hadn’t traveled: 103 reported no travel while just 52 said they had.
Three Florida residents whose testing or symptom dates were in January and February had traveled from Japan, where the Diamond Princess cruise ship sailed from Yokohama on Jan. 20, visiting China and southeast Asia.
More than 700 people on the ship would test positive for coronavirus. The ship was quarantined in early February and its passengers released on Feb. 19.
Only six people in Florida whose tests or symptoms started before March were not Florida residents. Their symptoms or positive results started appearing in mid- to late February. Their cases originated in Orange, Flagler, Sarasota, Hillsborough, St. Johns and Jackson counties.
The first report of a coronavirus-related death in the United States came Feb. 29 in the Seattle area. But medical officials there later learned that the virus had killed two more people on Feb. 26.
And then autopsies conducted in Santa Clara County, Calif., confirmed COVID-19 had killed two residents on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17.
In January, when the United States confirmed its first coronavirus infection — a Washington man who returned home from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus originated — the disease already had spread to thousands of Americans, researchers now estimate.
As of Feb. 4, the CDC had 293 people from 36 states under investigation. It had confirmed 11 cases, nine of whom had been in Wuhan and two patients who had made close contact with travelers.
Doctors in Paris announced on Tuesday they had discovered that a patient admitted to the hospital in December had the virus. The 42-year-old man, who had a dry cough, fever and trouble breathing, said he never went to China, and his last trip overseas was in August to Algeria.
The first official reports of COVID-19 in France came on Jan. 24, attributed to a 48-year-old French citizen who had returned from China days before.
If the disease were present in Florida in the first two months of 2020, it would have been hard for state health officials to trace it, said Dr. Claude Dharamraj, who ran the Pinellas County Health Department until 2015.
A national shortage of coronavirus tests would have made tracing impossible, she said.
“We can contact those who have been exposed, but it does no good when you can’t test,” she said.
The state’s 53 local health departments feed data into a centralized system, she said. Where one county might report the onset of a patient’s symptoms, another might report on when health officials swabbed a patient’s nose. Both events would have been captured in the same column of data.
Noting recent reports of an earlier spread in America, she acknowledged that Floridians could have been suffering earlier than previously thought.
“It’s very possible that in Florida the virus was spreading and people, being at the peak of flu season, probably thought they had the flu,” she said.
Staff writer Lulu Ramadan contributed to this story.
