In late December 2019 , a 42 - year - old man with pneumonia - similar symptoms was let in to a Paris infirmary . Shockingly , a test of the affected role ’s stored sampling swob come back positively charged for covid-19 , suggest the novel coronavirus was in France more than a month in the first place than previously thought .
The first three official cases of covid-19 in France wererecordedon January 24 , 2020 , which also happened to be the first sustain cases in all of Europe . All three patient had go from Wuhan , China , the original epicenter of the covid-19 pandemic , whichrecordedits first official case on December 31 , 2019 .
As it turns out , however , the novel coronavirus had been lurking undetected for weeks . Newresearchpublished in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents suggests covid-19 had already made it to Europe by late December , as evidenced by a re - analyzed swab take from a hospitalise patient and keep in moth-eaten storage .
A subway station in Paris, France, 1 January 2025.Image: (AP)
“ Identifying the first taint patient is of great epidemiological interest as it changes dramatically our knowledge regarding SARS - COV-2 and its spreading in the country , ” according to the subject field ’s author , which include Yves Cohen from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research ( INSERM ) . “ Moreover , the absence of a link with China and the lack of late travel paint a picture that the disease was already spreading among the Gallic population at the end of December 2019 . ”
To day of the month , France has most 170,000 confirm case of covid-19 , and 25,204 deaths , according to Johns Hopkins University .
That the still nameless , unidentified virus was in Europe during late December is wholly plausible , givenevidencefor its existence as far back as November 2019 and peradventure earlier . China ’s fuck up response to the outbreak , including thesuppressionof whistleblowers warning of a fresh coronavirus in Wuhan , contributed to the disease spiraling out of ascendence and becoming a worldwide pandemic .
https://gizmodo.com/china-gives-half-assed-apology-for-reprimanding-whistle-1842429285
On December 27 , 2019 , a man come at the Paris infirmary coughing up ancestry , running a febricity , and complaining of a headache — symptoms now associated with the SARS - CoV-2 computer virus . The 42 - year - old said his symptoms had gotten worse over the retiring four twenty-four hours , according to the study . Given that covid-19 has an brooding period of around six to 11 days , the affected role had belike become infected at some point between December 16 and 21 .
After run tests , his doctor were n’t capable to confab a formal diagnosis or detect pathogens , so they put him on antibiotics . The affected role was sent home two Clarence Shepard Day Jr. after being admitted and has since recovered , but the infirmary kept a respiratory sample .
Health officials in France recently refresh all sample distribution of ICU patients admitted to French hospitals between December 2 , 2019 and January 16 , 2020 , in ordering to set if covid-19 had participate into the country earlier than take over . All test came up negative except for one .
To ensure it was n’t a false positivistic , two independent teams were brought in to analyse the sample again with different covid-19 tests , but the results were the same : positive for SARS - CoV-2 . So for this to be a false positive , it would actually have to be three distinct fictitious positives , base on the superfluous precautions invoke during the sketch .
It ’s not solely clear how the patient contracted covid-19 , assuming the psychometric test are exact . The man had n’t traveled abroad since visiting Algeria in August 2019 , and he has no locomotion history or link to China , explained the authors .
That said , the patient ’s child was wan prior to him coming down with symptoms . What ’s more , his wife work at a toilet facility store near Roissy - Charles - de - Gaulle airport , which frequently help customers come directly from the aerodrome , accordingto Gallic broadcaster BFMTV . It ’s therefore potential that she contracted the virus from inward rider , became an asymptomatic attack aircraft carrier , and fan out it to her family . But that ’s just speculation .
“ This word clarifies that there is pregnant spread of the virus that we do not sleep together about , and that the computer virus has been circulating for far longer than we sleep with , ” Brandon Brown , an associate professor at UC Riverside School of Medicine , told Gizmodo .
Indeed , given this effect , it ’s possible that other country running similar retrospective tests will come up with similar consequence . Recentevidencefrom California suggests covid-19 was also in the state in December 2019 . These are alarming results , direct to the unusually rapid spread of the novel coronavirus during its earliest stages .
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