Tests show earliest virus deaths were in Northern California

Two people in Northern California died from the coronavirus at least three weeks before what was believed to be the first reported death from the virus, according to a medical examiner.

The two died in Santa Clara County on Feb 6 and Feb 17, the county coroner's office said Tuesday.

Until now, the first fatality was believed to have occurred in Kirkland, Washington on Feb 29, although officials there later discovered that two people who had died on Feb 26 also had the virus.

The report making the two people the earliest known victims of the pandemic may shift the timeline of the virus's spread through the country weeks earlier than previously believed, health officials said,

Dr Sara Cody, the county's chief medical officer, told The New York Times that the two had no known travel histories to China or anywhere else that would have exposed them to the virus. They are presumed to have caught the virus through community spread, she told the Times.

Further details on the victims were not provided.

"That is a very significant finding," Dr Ashish K. Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told CNN on Wednesday.

"Somebody who died on February 6, they probably contracted that virus early to mid-January. It takes at least two to three weeks from the time you contract the virus and you die from it."

If they did not contract coronavirus through travel abroad, that also is significant, he said.

"Therefore, that means there was community spread happening in California as early as mid-January, if not earlier than that," Jha said.

County officials said it took this long to get autopsy results back because at that time testing was more limited than it is today.

"These three individuals died at home during a time when very limited testing was available only through the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]. Testing criteria set by the CDC at the time restricted testing to only individuals with a known travel history and who sought medical care for specific symptoms," the county said in a statement.

The county said that as more deaths in the county are investigated, it's likely there will be more that are tied to the virus.

Reuters contributed to this article.