France’s first Covid-19 case 'dates back to December', flu retest shows

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Contacted later by Cohen's staff, the patient explained that he had not travelled to any infected areas. He had been sick for two weeks and had infected his two children – but not his wife.

The man's wife works in a supermarket at a fish stall. "We asked ourselves if there was a link with fish imported from China. But the woman only worked with French produce," Cohen said.

His team later learned that the woman works alongside "people of Chinese origin" at a sushi stall. "We wonder if she may have been infected asymptomatically," he added.

France’s first Covid-19 case 'dates back to December', flu retest shows

A doctor in the Paris region says one of his patients who was diagnosed with pneumonia in December was, in fact, infected with Covid-19. The report, which is due to be published in detail this week,…

www.rfi.fr

Adriano Decarli, an epidemiologist and medical statistics professor at the University of Milan, said there had been a “significant” increase in the number of people hospitalized for pneumonia and flu in the areas of Milan and Lodi between October and December last year.

Italian scientists investigate possible earlier emergence of coronavirus

Italian researchers are looking at whether a higher than usual number of cases of severe pneumonia and flu in Lombardy in the last quarter of 2019 may be a signal that the new coronavirus might have spread beyond China earlier than previously thought.

www.reuters.com