Washington, Sep 4 : A woman from Kansad who died in January 2020 has been listed as the first known person to die with Covid-19 in the US, according to local media reports.
The death certificate of Lovell “Cookie” Brown, who died on January 9, 2020, in Leavenworth, Kansas, was recently amended to say she died from the disease, Xinhua news agency quoted The Mercury News daily as saying in a report.
“Three months ago, Brown’s doctor quietly added ‘Covid-19 Pneumonia’ as one of the causes of her death, not only amending her death record but also effectively rewriting the timeline of when the pandemic reached the US,” said the report.
“Brown’s original death certificate said she’d died only from a stroke and chronic obstructive lung disease.
“But in May of this year, that changed,” said the report, adding Brown’s family had no idea until this week.
“Why is still a mystery. Her death is now included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s official record of US Covid deaths, but the agency wouldn’t comment further,” it said.
Previously, the first known Covid-19 death in the US was thought to have occurred on February 6, 2020, in a woman living in San Jose, California.
Since the onset of the pandemic early last year, the US has registered a total of 647,573 Covid-19 deaths, the highest in the world. (IANS)
