An American study has found signs of coronavirus in the US before the outbreak was officially announced in China.
Scientists from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who conducted the study said on Monday that tests of blood samples taken in the US from December 13, 2019, revealed evidence of antibodies for the Covid-19 virus, reports South China Morning Post.
The samples were taken more than two weeks before the official confirmation of the outbreak in the Wuhan province of China on December 31, 2019, and as much as a month earlier than the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in the US on January 19.
“The presence of these serum antibodies indicate that isolated Sars-CoV-2 infections may have occurred in the western portion of the United States earlier than previously recognized,” CDC scientists wrote in the study.
The finding follows an analysis published in Italy in November of blood samples taken in September 2019, which also indicated the presence of antibodies against Covid-19.
The Trump administration in the US has often blamed the outbreak – and the devastation of the pandemic – on China, and US President Donald Trump has even referred to the disease as “China virus” at times.
