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Friday marks 3 years since Snohomish County man reported as country’s first COVID patient

Friday marks three years since the first coronavirus case was identified in the United States.

That case was right here in Washington state. On Jan. 20, 2020, a Snohomish County man in his 30s was reported as “patient zero.” The man had recently traveled to the site of the original outbreak in Wuhan, China, to visit family.

In the following months, the Seattle area became the epicenter of the early U.S. outbreak.

At Life Care Center in Kirkland, dozens of residents died from complications from the virus within a four-week span.

At the time, there was no widespread testing taking place.