By Travis Merideth August 2, 2020 2:02 p.m.
When did Coronavirus COVID-19 start in the United States?
According to an article in the New York Times the first confirmed case in the United States appeared in am man in Washington State who returned from a trip to Wuhan, China on January 15, 2020.
Recently I was researching the statement by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine that there were 1,733 New Cases Reported in a 24 hour period which appeared to be the date of 7/29/2020. While researching that statement I could only find 215 new cases listed with an Onset Date of July 29th on July 31st, however the total case count change was 1,733 (note: as of August 1st that reported case count with an Onset Date of 7/29 had increased to 580). I have reached out to the Governors office to make them aware that the presentation of the data may appear misleading, and requesting them to comment. You can read that letter to Governor Mike DeWine here. As of 8/2/2020 I have not received a response.
While conducting my research it was suggested by a friend who requested privacy that there were cases in January (it is public information, and my friend was just pointing me in the right direction since I was writing about this topic). At the time I didn’t think about it, but as I was putting the numbers together to decipher how cases are being reported, the January Onset Date cases were right there on the Ohio Coronavirus Dashboard in the Summary Data CSV (This spreadsheet is updated regularly, so I would suggest downloading it regularly and saving copies with download dates).
When did Coronavirus COVID-19 start in the Ohio?
The official Ohio Coronavirus website data reports 40 cases in January with the first 3 cases (Erie County 1 Female 80+, Mahoning County 1 Female 80+, Warren County 1 Female 40-49) being listed with an onset date of January 3, 2020. When referencing the data pulled from the July 3rd summary, there were 2 cases on January 3, 2020, therefore the 3rd case was added to the list sometime after 7/3/2020. The Ohio data also shows that there were 9 cases spread between Clermont, Delaware, Franklin, Lake, Lucas, Medina, Montgomery, and Stark Counties with an onset date of January 15th, which is also the date that the man reported as the first confirmed case returned to Washington State from Wuhan, China.
Are Coronavirus COVID-19 cases on the Ohio Coronavirus Website all tested and confirmed?
As far as I knew testing was not available in January. I have had several friends who have stated that they were ill prior to Coronavirus and stating that they believe that they had it. I have not asked and therefore am unaware of any of them who have been tested for antibodies. I am also not aware if any of the 40 cases reported for January or 141 cases reported for February have had any type of test to confirm Coronavirus or antibodies for Coronavirus COVID-19.
According to the terms and definitions statement on the Ohio
Onset Date is defined as:
Date the illness began. If onset date is unknown, the date associated with the case is used as a substitute for the date of illness onset.
Case Count is defined as:
Total number of cases that meet the demographic criteria specified in the corresponding row. For example, the number in this cell is the total number of cases in a county, of the given sex, age range, onset date, etc. Each individual is only counted once. This includes both Confirmed or CDC Expanded Case Definition (Probable).
Based on this information I can only assume that the cases with January and February onset dates must fall within the CDC Expanded Case Definition (Probable).
Ohio Coronavirus Case Count by Onset Date as of August 1st (I downloaded the data at approximately 1 p.m.)
| January | 40 |
| February | 141 |
| March | 5658 |
| April | 16846 |
| May | 15747 |
| June | 19457 |
| July | 32819 |
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Sources:
Ohio Department of Health Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard – https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/home
New York Times – First Patient With Wuhan Coronavirus is Identified in the U.S. (Roni Caryn Rabin) Published January 21, 2020, Updated May 7, 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/health/cdc-coronavirus.html