Virus already in Italy by December, waste water study finds

The coronavirus was already present in two large cities in northern Italy in December, over two months before the first case was detected, a national health institute study of waste water has found.

That suggests the virus appeared in Italy around the same time it was first reported in China, AFP reported.

Researchers discovered genetic traces of COVID-19 in samples of waste water collected in Milan and Turin at the end of last year, and Bologna in January, the ISS institute said in a statement on Friday.

Italy's first known native case was discovered mid-February.

The results "help to understand the start of the circulation of the virus in Italy," the ISS said.

They also "confirm the by-now consolidated international evidence" as to the strategic function of sewer samples as an early detection tool, it added.

The results feed into an effort by scientist around the world to trace the virus's family tree.

Italy was the first European country to be hit by the virus and the first in the world to impose a nationwide lockdown. The first known case, other than a couple of visiting Chinese tourists, was a patient in the town of Codogno in the Lombardy region.

On February 21 the government designated Codogno a so-called red zone and ordered it shuttered, followed by nine other towns across Lombardy and Veneto.

By early March it had extended the shutdown across the country and has now recorded over 34,500 deaths.

SS