Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

January 14, 2021

Earliest Detection to Date of SARS-CoV-2 in Florida: Identification Together with Influenza Virus on the Main Entry Door of a University Building, February 2020

Category:

Topic:

Keywords (Tags):

A sample collected from a door handle on February 21, 2020 in an influenza surveillance study in Florida tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, despite the first official case of COVID-19 in the state not being reported until March 1, 2020. Sequence analysis found that the Florida SARS-CoV-2 strain, UF-11, was identical to strains identified in Washington State during the same time period. Live virus was not isolated from the sample, and analysis of sequences from COVID-19 patients in the same region suggest limited subsequent transmission of the UF-11 strain.

Lednicky et al. (Jan 13, 2021). Earliest Detection to Date of SARS-CoV-2 in Florida: Identification Together with Influenza Virus on the Main Entry Door of a University Building, February 2020. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245352