Blood donations suggest COVID-19 was in US last DecemberA study in Clinical Infectious Diseases yesterday found that 1% of US blood donations late last year and in early 2020 contained SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, suggesting that the virus was present in the United States earlier than previously thought.SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was first recognized in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and the initial US case was identified on Jan 19.Researchers conducted serologic testing of 7,389 blood samples collected via routine American Red Cross blood donations from Dec 13, 2019 to Jan 17, 2020 in nine states—California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.