The research estimates that the Covid-19 virus spread beyond China by January 2020 with the estimated first case being in Japan on January 3, 2020, and followed by Thailand on January 7, 2020.
The coronavirus linked to Covid-19 may have spread to China as early as October 2019, a new study has revealed, pushing the date back several weeks before the first case is officially identified in the city of Wuhan, in the center from China.
Officially, the first case of Covid-19 was reportedly identified on December 8 and linked to the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan.
But, the new study by researchers at the British University of Kent pinpoints the most likely date of November 17, saying it had spread globally by January 2020.
The article was published on June 24 in the journal PLOS Pathogens.
“Our results suggest that the virus appeared in China from early October to mid-November 2019 (the most likely date being November 17) and that in January 2020 it had spread around the world,” said the researchers, adding that this suggests an earlier and faster spread than that of confirmed cases.
Research estimates the virus has spread beyond China by January 2020, with the first case estimated in Japan on January 3, 2020, and followed by Thailand on January 7, 2020.
The researchers added that the virus is likely to have left East Asia and arrived in Europe, with a first case estimated on January 12, 2020 in Spain; South Korea is next on the list where the virus emerged on January 14.
After spreading in Europe, the virus appears to have spread to North America with an estimated first case in the United States on January 16, making it the fifth country, according to research.
China has claimed to have shared all relevant data on the origin of the Covid-19 virus during the investigation by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has shown excessive diplomacy suggesting that the WHO should investigate the origin in other countries, including the United States.
“After the outbreak of the pandemic, China took the initiative to help the WHO to conduct research on the tracing of the origin on a global scale … Experts from both sides jointly carried out visits to the field, analyzed a large number of statistics, published an authoritative study report, and came to many important conclusions. This joint study has actively promoted origin research globally, ”China’s Foreign Ministry said in May.
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However, doubts remain about the origin and new studies have raised new questions.
In an article published on a preprint platform this week, Jesse Bloom of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle recovered deleted sequencing data from the first cases of Covid-19 in China.
“The data showed that samples taken from the Huanan market were ‘not representative’ of SARS-CoV-2 as a whole and were a variant of an earlier circulating progenitor sequence, which spread to d ‘other parts of China, “Reuters reported in an article. .
“Why would scientists ask international databases to delete key data that tells us how COVID-19 started in Wuhan? Harvard Broad Institute researcher Alina Chan said on Twitter.
