The first coronavirus-related death in the U.S. was a 57-year-old Bay Area resident, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Patricia Dowd worked as a manager for a semiconductor company before she died on Feb. 6, the newspaper reports.
Her brother Rick Cabello told CNN she had been in relatively good health and didn’t smoke.
“She was an athlete in her high school days, she was always active,” Cabello told CNN Wednesday.
He said the family was shocked when she died and they thought it was a heart attack.
The Los Angeles Times reported Dowd “exercised routinely, watched her diet and took no medication.”
On Tuesday, California's Santa Clara County announced that tissue samples confirmed two people who had died in early February tested positive for COVID-19. The positive tests show these deaths took place before the previously thought first coronavirus-related death on Feb. 29 in Washington state.
The health officials did not name the deceased. Cabello told the LA Times and CNN the 57-year-old woman was his sister. The other unidentified victim was a 67-year-old man who died on Feb. 17.
Santa Clara County Department of Public Health Director Dr. Sara Cody said neither patient had traveled before they were infected with the virus, so both instances are being classified as community transmissions.
Officials said neither of the victims had been tested because at the time testing was restricted to people who had a known travel history and showed certain symptoms.
Both of the victims had flu-like symptoms before dying, county officials said.
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