WHO Re-Checks Study On When Italy First Detected Coronavirus

Covid: Italy's first case was detected in February last year, but a study has suggested antibodies to it or a variant were detected in Italy in 2019.

Samples from a study suggesting the coronavirus was circulating outside China by October 2019 have been re-tested 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 President 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.