Patients in Florida had coronavirus symptoms as early as January

https://news.yahoo.com/patients-florida-had-coronavirus-symptoms-140849651.html

Chris Persaud, Palm Beach Post
,USA TODAY•May 5, 2020

COVID-19 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.

Florida did not announce its first two presumed coronavirus cases until March. 1. At the time, cases were not considered confirmed until reviewed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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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 started feeling symptoms or when the patient received a positive test result.

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The entire dataset disappeared from the state website Monday evening only to return after 7:30 p.m. without the column showing the date relating to symptoms.

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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.

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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.

None reported traveling to China.

Only six were not Florida residents. Their symptoms or positive results started appearing in mid- to late February.