Leavenworth County COVID-19 death could have been first virus death in the United States

A medical certifier recently determined the Jan. 9, 2020, death of a Leavenworth County resident was due to COVID-19, state officials confirmed Wednesday, making it the potentially one of the first known deaths from the virus in the United States.

The first death in Kansas from COVID-19 was previously thought to be in mid-March, just days after the virus was discovered in the state. 

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KDHE Spokesperson Matt Lara said the decision to update the cause-of-death came from the determination that the person's symptoms were consistent with that of COVID-19. Given the timing of the death, it is unlikely a COVID-19 test was administered to confirm the cause.

State officials don't have the information necessary to determine the cause of death, Lara added, and the agency doesn't make those decisions.

"However, the determination made in this case isn’t just an outlier, it conflicts with all of the data we have on COVID cases in Kansas and the region at the time of the individual’s death," Lara said in an email.

The Leavenworth County Health Department didn't immediately respond for a request for comment.

The news that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention database was updated with the Leavenworth County death — as well as January COVID-19-related fatalities in five other states — was first reported by the San Jose Mercury News.

Experts have long believed the COVID-19 virus was present in the United States before its formal discovery on Feb. 26, 2020.

A CDC report from June of last year found multiple pieces of evidence that "limited U.S. community transmission likely began in late January or early February 2020," with the virus making its way from China and Europe. It then spread at levels without detection for weeks, or longer.

And a further study of blood samples indicated isolated cases could have been occurring in the U.S. as early as December 2019.

Over 362,000 cases of COVID-19 and 5,535 virus deaths have been reported in Kansas since the pandemic began, according to KDHE.