Chris Cuomo, the host of CNN's Cuomo Primetime, has speculated that there may have been cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States as far back as October 2019.

Cuomo, the younger brother of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, announced on March 31 that he had tested positive for COVID-19, and his wife Cristina confirmed last week that she was also infected. On Wednesday, she revealed that the couple's son Mario had tested positive.

However, in a CNN Global Town Hall event on April 16 Cuomo suggested that two of his children – he has three – may have suffered from the novel coronavirus earlier without diagnosis.

"The kids now anecdotally, Cristina believes, that at least two of them have had it in the last few months. Why? We don't know, but atypically long-duration sinus, fever, lethargy," he said.

"I think we're going to learn that coronavirus has been in this country since, like, October, that there have been cases.

"And as you guys both know, and I hear all the time from all over the country, how many people do you hear saying, 'I think I had it, I had this and this, I lost my sense of smell and this and that, but I never got tested'? Those cases are, like, abounding all over the country.

"And I think the frustration here is that we just don't know."

The first confirmed case of the coronavirus in the U.S. was reported in Washington state on January 21.