The sudden death of an apparently healthy woman is now the first known fatality related to the US coronavirus. USA



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She was Patricia Dowd, a Bay Area woman who worked as a manager for a semiconductor company and who “routinely exercised, observed her diet, and did not take medication,” the Los Angeles Times reported for the first time on Wednesday.

Dow Cabello’s older brother Rick Cabello told CNN that he did not smoke and was in good health.

“She was an athlete in her high school days, she was always active,” Cabello said Wednesday. Her sudden death came as a shock to family members. Everyone believed it was a heart attack, Cabello said.

California’s Santa Clara County announced Tuesday that tissue samples confirmed that two people who had died in early February tested positive for coronavirus, long before the United States previously understood the first coronavirus-related death on 29 February in Washington state.

One victim was a 57-year-old woman who died on February 6, and the other was a 69-year-old man who died on February 17, the county said. The county did not name the woman, but Cabello told the Los Angeles Times and CNN that she was Dowd, her sister.

None of the patients had a recent travel history that would have exposed them to the virus, the director of the Santa Clara County Department of Public Health, Dr. Sara Cody, said at a press conference on Wednesday, and officials presume that both cases represent community transmission.

‘She had flu-like symptoms’

Before Dowd was found dead on February 6, “she had flu-like symptoms for a few days and then seemed to recover,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

2 Californians died of coronavirus weeks before the first known death in the US USA

Five days before his death, Dowd called his brother to tell him that he was unable to attend a family visit in Stockton, California.

“She was not feeling well, which was very unusual for her,” Cabello said. “I remember her specifically saying ‘I don’t feel well,'” he added.

He had also canceled plans to go to a weekend funeral, Los Angeles. Reported times.

Dowd started working from home as his condition improved and had been in contact with a colleague around 8 a.m. on the day of his death. She was found dead about two hours later, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A traveler and ‘everyone’s rock’

Dowd was a frequent world traveler, his brother said.

She had planned to travel to China later this year and went abroad “several times a year to different parts of the world,” a family member told the Los Angeles Times. Dowd had a history of traveling abroad, as did his coworkers at Lam Research, the newspaper also reported.

Dowd was “hardworking, loyal, and caring,” Cabello told Los Angeles. Times.

“She was the energy person in her large network of friends,” said her brother. “She was everyone’s rock.”

In a tribute wall created for Patricia Dowd by the Cusimano family’s colonial morgue, a co-worker wrote, “I will always remember the kindness and generosity of her spirit. She was genuinely loving and had incredible energy.”

As more deaths are investigated, more positives may emerge

Neither victim who died in February had been screened for the virus at the time of death because testing capacity was limited, Santa Clara county officials said Tuesday in a press release.

Evidence was only available through the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. USA And they were restricted to people who had a known travel history and showed certain symptoms.

The two victims who died in February had flu-like symptoms before they died, county officials said.

“Because the coroner continued to suspect that these deaths were caused by Covid-19, the coroner sent an autopsy tissue to the CDC for final testing,” the coroner’s office said in a statement.

As the county investigates more deaths, more people are likely linked to the virus, authorities said. And that adds to the evidence that suggests the current case and death counts across the country may be less important.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the age of the man who died on February 17. He was 69 years old.

CNN’s Jason Hanna contributed to this report.

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