In a piece of revelatory news coming in from the European country Italy, the country’s scientists have discovered that the first trial of the novel coronavirus dates back to December, even before the first case was reported from the index country China.
The traces of the novel coronaviruses was found in the wastewater from Milan and Turin of December 2019. 40 sewage samples were collected from the wastewater by the Italian National Institute of Health. The sewage samples range from October last year and February this year. As per the analysis carried out by the institute suggest that there was a presence of the coronavirus in the sample of December 18.
Giuseppina La Rosa, an expert in the environmental wastewater at the Italian National Institute of Health, who also led the research says that the research has helped the researchers to understand the beginning of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Various other countries including Netherlands, France, Australia have also conducted similar studies by the country’s scientific researchers. The countries have also found traces of Sars-Cov-2 in the sewage. Following this, several other countries have started to use wastewater sampling to track the outbreak in the respective countries. As per the researchers who are a part of the study, there has been evidence that the novel coronavirus might have been circulating in various parts of the world even before China reported its first case of COVID-19.
A veterinary epidemiology and data science professor at Scotland’s Edinburgh University, Rowland Kao, said,
“That COVID-19 could have been circulating in Italy is possible. This finding does not on its own, however, tell us if that early detection was the source of the very large epidemic in Italy, or if that was due to a later introduction into the country.”
France Also Had COVID-19 Before China
French Scientists have also found that a man was infected with COVID-19 as early as December 27 which is a month before France officially confirmed its first case. La Rosa further said that,
“Automatically imply that the main transmission chains that led to the development of the epidemic in our country originated from these very first cases.”
Source: India Times
