Renewed tests of blood samples collected in Italy as early as October 2019 have revived a debate over whether coronavirus was circulating in Europe before Chinese authorities confirmed the first case in Wuhan.
Scientists from Milan’s Istituto Nazionale Tumori, a cancer research centre, wrote in a new paper, published on Monday, that retesting of a small number of pre-pandemic blood samples by two laboratories had indicated the presence of antibodies normally observed after coronavirus infections.
“The results of this retesting suggest that what we previously reported in asymptomatic patients is a plausible signal of early circulation of the virus in Italy,” Giovanni Apolone, one of the researchers, told the Financial Times.