According to a new study, the SARS-CoV-2 virus could have started spreading in China around October 2019, which is two months before the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Wuhan.

Investigators from the University of Kent employed methods from conservation science and estimated that the virus first emerged between early October and mid-November 2019. They estimated that the most probable date for the emergence of the virus appears to be November 17, 2019, and that the virus had likely spread globally by January 2020. The first official COVID-19 case in China was reported in December 2019 and was associated with Wuhans Huanan seafood market. But it seems that some early cases had no known link with Huanan, which indicates that the virus was already in circulation before it reached the market. The findings are published in PLOS Pathogens… (Reuters, June 25, 2021)