First Covid-19 case could have hit China in October 2019: UK study

In this file photo, medical staff in protective gear arrive with a patient at a hospital in Wuhan on Jan 25, 2020. - AFP

SHANGHAI (Reuters): The virus that causes Coivd-19 could have started spreading in China as early as October 2019, two months before the first case was identified in the central city of Wuhan, a new study showed on Friday (June 25).

Researchers from Britain's University of Kent used methods from conservation science to estimate that SARS-CoV-2 first appeared from early October to mid-November 2019, according to a paper published in the PLOS Pathogens journal.