New submitter UnsungBraveHeart shares a report from Reuters: Scientists in Italy have found traces of the new coronavirus in wastewater collected from Milan and Turin in December 2019 — suggesting COVID-19 was already circulating in northern Italy before China reported the first cases. The Italian National Institute of Health looked at 40 sewage samples collected from wastewater treatment plants in northern Italy between October 2019 and February 2020. An analysis released on Thursday said samples taken in Milan and Turin on Dec. 18 showed the presence of the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Scientists said the detection of traces of the virus before the end of 2019 was consistent with evidence in other countries that COVID-19 may have been circulating before China reported the first cases on Dec. 31. A study in May by French scientists found that a Paris man was infected with COVID-19 as early as Dec. 27, nearly a month before France confirmed its first cases.
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https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/06/19/2259229/italy-sewage-study-suggests-covid-19-was-there-in-december-2019?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed