Tests conducted in the United States showed that the first cases of infection with a new type of coronavirus in the country occurred in December 2019, which suggests that COVID-19 was already spreading around the world several weeks before the first cases were recorded in China diseases reports Bloomberg citing the results of the corresponding research .
As follows from the materials, out of 7389 blood samples collected from December 13, 2019 to January 17, 2020, 106 cases of infection were detected from donors from nine states. Collected by the American Red Cross samples were sent to the Control Center and US disease prevention testing to determine the presence of antibodies against the virus.
“The results of this report suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection may have been present in the US in December 2019, earlier than previously thought,” the document says. According to the newspaper, the discovery suggests that the coronavirus was spreading around the world before it became widely known, which, in turn, could re-energize the debate about the origin of the pandemic.
The study showed that in mid-December there were isolated cases of the disease in the western United States. Antibodies were also detected in early January in Americans in other states before it was revealed that the virus had been introduced to those locations.
Scientists pointed out that it is unlikely that the identified antibodies were developed to contain other coronaviruses, since 84 samples have neutralizing activity specific to SARS-CoV-2. They also noted that it is not possible to determine the extent of infection at the state or country level based on samples, or whether the infections were imported.
Earlier, radiologists at the Albert-Schweizer Hospital in Colmar in eastern France suspected the arrival of coronavirus to France in the fall of 2019: even then there were patients with symptoms characteristic of the infection. They came to this conclusion after examining nearly 2,500 X-ray images taken between October 15 and April 30. It is noted that the first patients with coronavirus could appear in France in November 2019: patients who took pictures that month were found to have anomalies characteristic of COVID-19.
An outbreak of COVID-19 pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus was first recorded in December 2019 in Wuhan. On March 11, WHO announced that the situation could be characterized as a pandemic. According to the latest data, more than 63 million people are infected in the world. The first case in the United States was detected on January 19.