Almost a year after coronavirus changed the existing notion of normalcy as humans had known till then, a recent study has now found Covid-19 infections in the US dating back to December 2019. The study provides further evidence that the coronavirus was spreading globally weeks before the first cases were reported in China. Coronavirus was silently circulating worldwide earlier than known.
According to a Bloomberg report, the study identified 106 infections from 7,389 blood samples collected from donors in nine US states between December 13, 2019 and January 17 this year. The samples, collected by the American Red Cross, were sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing to detect if there were antibodies against the virus.
“The findings of this report suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infections may have been present in the US in December 2019, earlier than previously recognised," the paper said.
It is to be noted that COVID was first reported from Wuhan in China in late December 2019. After multiplying rapidly throughout the city in the following weeks, the disease spread across the globe. Worldwide more than 63 million have been infected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The CDC study indicated there were isolated infections in the western part of the US in mid-December. Antibodies were also found in early January in other states before the virus was known to have been introduced to those places.
The study could re-ignite debate over the origins of the pandemic. A patient in France was found to have contracted the virus after being hospitalised with flu-like symptoms at the end of December, contradicting official statistics showing Covid-19 reached the country from people returning from Wuhan at the end of January.
Recently, state-run Chinese media reported that a number of imported food products from different countries, including a consignment of fish from India, were found to have traces of the COVID-19 alleging that the virus may have entered China through foreign routes.
