China might just be where the first case of Coronavirus was detected, but it is not the main place wherein the virus originated. This is what a leading doctor in Italy confessed in a report saying that there’s a possibility that COVID-19 did not originate in Wuhan, China but somewhere else– or maybe in Italy itself.
According to a report in South China Morning Post, “strange pneumonia” cases were already reported back in Nov. in the northern part of Italy– precisely in Lombardy. This was months before China had an outbreak with the virus starting on Dec.
As mentioned by one of the country’s leading doctors named Giuseppe Remuzzi, the director of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, he said that there were already few cases in Italy of this unknown virus that has been severe for older people in Nov. up to Dec.
Remuzzi said that there might be chances that the virus already circulated the world even before China declared an outbreak with the viral disease.
“They [general practitioners] remember having seen very strange pneumonia, very severe, particularly in old people in December and even November,” said him. “This means that the virus was circulating, at least in [the northern region of] Lombardy and before we were aware of this outbreak occurring in China.”
The doctor explained that only these past few weeks, wherein he discovered that there were cases similar to Coronavirus were being treated in the country by various Italian doctors.
China possibly NOT the main source of Coronavirus
Could this mean that the Coronavirus did not come from China at all? The answer is still uncertain.
Italian doctors already explained that the first infection in Lombardy was the result of an Italian coming into contact with a Chinese person in late January. Until now, this case is still being investigated since no evidence was saying that the infection was positive Novel Coronavirus. If it is, the debate wherein COVID-19 originated could arise between countries.
In China, the first case of Coronavirus was detected when a man from Wuhan had a “pneumonia with an unknown cause.” However, there were reports leading to the assumption that the virus could be circulating months before the detection.
Where did the Coronavirus originate?
It is still unclear whether where in the world the Coronavirus originated. Most reports said that since China had the first case of the virus, it was thought to be the place origin.
This became a controversial issue on most countries especially in the United States when US President Donald Trump repeatedly referred the virus as ‘Chinese virus’ or ‘Wuhan virus’– without certifying where the virus really originated.