Italian scientists investigate possible earlier emergence of coronavirus

FILE PHOTO: An employee controls the temperature of a man at the entrance of a supermarket, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Milan, Italy March 23, 2020. REUTERS/Daniele Mascolo

MILAN (Reuters) - 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.

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 hospitalised for pneumonia and flu in the areas of Milan and Lodi between October and December last year.