Autopsy: Santa Clara patient died of COVID-19 on Feb. 6 — 23 days before 1st U.S. death declared

San Francisco The City of San Francisco currently counts 14.07 cases per 10,000 residents city-wide. The darker blue portions of the map illustrate the neighborhoods harder hit by COVID-19 cases, based on data from two-thirds of all tests for the coronavirus across the city to date. The remaining one-third of tests did not include the patients' location data, according to Dr. Grant Colfax. less San Francisco The City of San Francisco currently counts 14.07 cases per 10,000 residents city-wide. The darker blue portions of the map illustrate the neighborhoods harder hit by COVID-19 cases, based on data ... more Photo: City Of San Francisco Photo: City Of San Francisco Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Autopsy: Santa Clara patient died of COVID-19 on Feb. 6 — 23 days before 1st U.S. death declared 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

Health officials said Tuesday that new autopsy results show a patient in Santa Clara, Calif., died of COVID-19 on Feb. 6, several weeks before the United States declared its first novel coronavirus death.

The finding suggests that the virus was circulating in the San Francisco Bay Area earlier than previously thought.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first fatality due to coronavirus complications in the United States on Feb. 28. The patient was a resident of Kirkland, Wash.

Now, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department has identified two individuals who died of COVID-19 at home on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17. The health department said samples were sent to the CDC and the results were shared Tuesday.

The department also received the results of a third autopsy finding from a patient who was confirmed to have died from COVID-19 on March 6.

All three of these deaths occurred at a time when testing for the virus was extremely limited.

The county originally said its first coronavirus death was on March 9. This new report finds three deaths happened before this date.

"As the Medical Examiner-Coroner continues to carefully investigate deaths throughout the county, we anticipate additional deaths from COVID-19 will be identified," Santa Clara County Health Department said in a statement.

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Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.