Proof Sars-Cov-2 was already around in Italy in December
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/virus-already-in-italy-by-december-waste-water-study-finds-1.4991172
The coronavirus was already present in two large cities in northern Italy in December, over two months before the first case was detected. Researchers discovered genetic traces of SARS-CoV-2 -- as the virus is officially known -- in samples of waste water collected in Milan and Turin at the end of last year, and Bologna in January.
ISS water quality expert Giuseppina La Rosa and her team examined 40 waste water samples from October 2019 to February 2020. The results, confirmed in two different laboratories by two different methods, showed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in samples taken in Milan and Turin on December 18, 2019 and in Bologna on January 29, 2020. Samples from October and November 2019 were negative, showing the virus had yet to arrive, La Rosa said.
The data was in line with results obtained from retrospective analysis of samples of patients hospitalised in France, which found positive SARS-CoV-2 cases dating back to the end of December, the institute said. It also pointed to a recent Spanish study that found genetic traces in waste water samples collected in mid-January in Barcelona, some 40 days before the first indigenous case was discovered.
If it's detectable in sewage water, community spread was already present early December in Italy. Those 'strange' pneumonia cases at the end of the year are starting to look more and more like Covid19.
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