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The researchers found genetic traces of the COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 virus in sewage samples, which were taken in Milan and Turin late last year and in Bologna in January, according to an ISS statement seen on Friday by the AFP news agency.
The first known domestic case of COVID-19 in Italy was recorded in mid-February.
The results “will help to better understand the start of virus circulation in Italy,” says the ISS.
It is also added that “systematic international data corroborates” and the importance of the samples for the study.
Italy was the first European country to be affected by a coronavirus and the first in the world to introduce quarantine throughout the state.
The first known case (excluding a couple of tourists from China) is a patient from the Codonjo region in Lombardy. On February 21, the country’s authorities declared the city a red zone and ordered its closure.
Soon nine other cities in the Lombardy and Veneto regions followed suit. In early March, the quarantine spread across the country.
In Italy, the coronavirus killed more than 34,000 people. 500 people
ISS water quality expert Giuseppina La Rosa, along with her team, analyzed 40 samples of wastewater from October 2019 to February 2020. The results, confirmed in two different laboratories in two different ways, revealed that SARS-Cov-2 was detected in samples taken in Milan and Turin on December 18, 2019 and in Bologna on January 29, 2020.
The responses to the samples from October and November 2019 were negative, which means that at that time the virus had not yet reached Italy, explains G. La Rosa.
Since many coronavirus patients experienced mild symptoms or no symptoms, water tests can be an effective means of detecting the virus before the first cases are clinically confirmed in areas where an outbreak has not yet occurred.
According to the ISS, they have already asked the country’s Ministry of Health to coordinate the periodic testing of water samples in sewers before the wastewater reaches the treatment plants, since “it is a reliable means of detecting and monitoring the circulation of viruses in different areas as quickly as possible. “
A pilot project for such research is planned to be launched in July in tourist centers, and the country is expected to implement a national wastewater monitoring system by fall.
China reported the outbreak to the WHO on December 31. On January 3, the country contacted the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And on January 8, he publicly announced that the pathogen was a new coronavirus.
In March, the South China Morning Post newspaper, citing data provided by the Chinese government, reported that the first case of new coronavirus infection in China had been clarified in November last year.
According to the data provided, the first case of infection was detected on November 17 in a 55-year-old resident of Hubei province.
Starting that day, doctors diagnosed one to five new cases per day.
There were already 27 people infected on December 15 and 60 on December 20. According to representatives of the medical community, Chinese doctors only realized that they were facing a new infectious disease only in late December.
On December 27, 2019, a doctor from Hubei province informed Chinese authorities that the cause of the disease was a new type of coronavirus. At the time, 180 people infected with the virus had already been registered, but doctors were unaware of all the cases.
As of December 31, 2019, there were already 266 people infected with coronavirus, and as of January 1, 2020 – 381.
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