Coronavirus spread 'under the radar' in US major cities since January, researchers say

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Source: CNN

Coronavirus spread 'under the radar' in US major cities since January, researchers say

By Nicole Chavez, Faith Karimi and Eric Levenson, CNN
Updated 0222 GMT (1022 HKT) April 24, 2020

(CNN) — The novel coronavirus silently spread in the United States earlier than previously thought, infecting tens of thousands of people in New York and other major cities, researchers say.

A new model by the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University in Boston shows the first infections came from China in early or mid-January, and that the virus went undetected because many people were not presenting symptoms.

"The disease spread under the radar," Alessandro Vespignani, director of the Network Science Institute, said on "CNN Newsroom" on Thursday.

The model suggests that while Americans were still focused on China, about 28,000 people in major cities -- such as New York, San Francisco and Seattle -- were infected by March 1.

The virus circulated in the community of Santa Clara County, California about three weeks before the first known US coronavirus-related death in Washington state, Dr. Sara Cody, the county's public health director, told Anderson Cooper on Thursday.

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Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/23/health/us-coronavirus-thursday/index.html