Coronavirus: WHO rechecks research on when virus first surfaced in Italy

There is growing international pressure to learn more about the origins of the pandemic

Study samples suggesting the coronavirus was circulating outside China by October 2019 have been retested

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The area of Lombardy, the northern Italian region around Milan, was the first and hardest hit by the coronavirus last year. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:44pm, 1 Jun 2021Updated: 2:21pm, 2 Jun 2021

Samples from a study suggesting the coronavirus was circulating outside China by October 2019 have been retested at the World Health Organization’s (WTO) request, two scientists who led the Italian research said.

There is growing international pressure to learn more about the origins of the pandemic that has killed more than 3 million people worldwide and US President Joe Biden last week ordered his aides to find answers.

The WHO reacted to Biden’s announcement that intelligence agencies were pursuing rival theories, including the possibility of a laboratory accident in China, by saying the search was being “poisoned by politics”.

Covid-19 was first identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, while Italy’s first patient was detected on February 21 last year in a small town near Milan.

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However, a study published last year suggested antibodies to either the virus or a variant were detected in Italy in 2019.

Coronavirus: WHO rechecks research on when virus first surfaced in Italy

There is growing international pressure to learn more about the origins of the pandemic Study samples suggesting the coronavirus was circulating outside China by October 2019 have been retested

There is growing international pressure to learn more about the origins of the pandemic

Study samples suggesting the coronavirus was circulating outside China by October 2019 have been retested