Italy ‘had Covid in September last year’

Coronavirus was circulating in Italy last September, months before it first emerged in China, a report has claimed.

Medics attend an emergency callout in Milan last week. Picture: AFP

Coronavirus was circulating in Italy last September, months before it first emerged in China, a report has claimed.

A study of blood samples taken last year could alter current thinking. After Covid-19 was first identified in Wuhan in China in late December, Italy’s first known case did not emerge until February 20 – the start of Europe’s outbreak.

However, researchers at Italy’s National Cancer Institute found that 14 per cent of 162 blood samples taken as part of a cancer screening test in September contained Covid antibodies, indicating that those tested had been exposed to the virus. The first positive sample was taken in the northern Veneto region on September 3. By the end of the month over half of the positives had come from Lombardy – where the outbreak flared in March.

Nearly 12 per cent of all the blood collected between September and March had antibodies, and all patients testing positive showed no symptoms, convincing the researchers that the virus arrived far earlier than thought and circulated in a mild version. The results “may reshape the history of pandemic”, they said. The World Health Organisation is reviewing the results.

Meanwhile, as Italians face rising hardship due to lockdowns, doctors have been targeted. Last month 70 cars parked by staff at a Rimini hospital were vandalised. “There is less admiration, support and affection for doctors, while indifference and a lack of friendliness has increased,” the head of a Milan hospital said, while one doctor said colleagues had received threats by phone, social media and on the street.

The Times