London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Aug 05, 2025

Italy’s earliest coronavirus strains did not arrive from China, study suggests

Strains from Covid-19 patients in the Lombardy region ‘did not contain viral strains isolated in the first months of the outbreak in China’. One possible route to Italy was from Central Europe, where strains with similar mutations were detected, researchers say

The earliest coronavirus strains circulating in Italy did not come directly from China, according to a new study.

Researchers in Milan collected more than 300 blood samples of Covid-19 patients from the Lombardy region between February and April and traced the origin of the viral strains by changes in their genes.

Italy was the first country in the world that put up a travel restriction barring all flights from China, but the genome sequencing suggested “a transmission chain not directly involving China”, said the researchers led by Professor Carlo Federico Perno of Milan University in a non-peer-reviewed paper posted on medRxiv.org on Monday.

Lombardy had the earliest known outbreak in the West and has accounted for more than a third of the coronavirus cases in Italy. It is Italy’s richest region with thriving businesses, international transport connections and densely populated urban areas.

Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease Covid-19, was isolated and sequenced by Chinese researchers in early January. It was not until February 20 that the first case of local infection was confirmed by Lombardy’s health authorities, but “sustained community transmission was ongoing way before” that date, the researchers said.

Perno’s team collected blood samples from 371 patients in 12 provinces across the region. They were randomly chosen from people admitted to hospital with mild, moderate or severe symptoms. About 7 per cent of the samples failed to produce high-quality reading of the virus’ full genome, but the remainder still provided the largest sample base so far from the Lombardy region.

The strains belonged to two separate lineages, each playing a dominant role in some provinces. But they “did not contain viral strains isolated in the first months of the outbreak in China”, said the paper.

Italy banned travellers from China on January 31, after a Chinese couple tested positive for Covid-19 in Rome. But according to a study by the Italian National Institute of Health last month, the virus had already appeared in sewage water in Milan and Turin in mid-December.

Perno’s new study showed that there could have been “multiple introductions” of the virus to the Lombardy region. These strains formed relatively isolated clusters in separate areas. One possible direction of the source was Central Europe, where strains with similar mutations had been detected, according to the researchers.

Their calculation suggested that these entries may have happened in the second half of January, based on the assumption that the virus was mutating at a relatively constant speed – although that may not have been the case.

The Italian study is one of several around the world to have found strains that were not traced to China.

In New York, the viral strains circulating in March did not come from China, which researchers said “was unanticipated” because government scientists had gone put extra emphasis on collecting samples in Chinese-speaking neighbourhoods.

“Rather, the sequence analysis suggests probable introductions of Sars-CoV-2 from Europe, from other US locations and local introductions from within New York,” said the official report of the joint research by the city’s Department of Health and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, released last Friday.

A study by the Pasteur Institute in Paris in May confirmed that the outbreak in France had no direct link to China. Another study by Russian government scientists identified 67 introductions into their country and found only one that related to a Chinese source.

Some other studies challenged the belief that the pandemic originated in Wuhan, where the virus was first detected in late December.

A research team led by Spain’s top biologists identified the virus in a waste water sample in Barcelona dated back to March last year. In the Brazilian beach town Florianopolis, drainage samples collected and stored in government research facilities in November later tested positive for the coronavirus.

Benjamin Neuman, professor and chair of biological sciences with the Texas A&M University Texarkana, said that the recent findings could be “potentially a really big story” but that the data would require more scrutiny.

For example, the viral strains detected in sewage samples should have their genome sequenced to determine their position in the evolutionary tree, he said.

“If the sequences are indeed from that early part of the outbreak, it should resemble the earliest sequences from China, possibly with mutations that have not yet been seen,” Professor Neuman said.

They “should not have some of the mutations that appeared later in other parts of the world”, he added.

A government epidemiologist in Beijing, who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media, said tracing the origin of the coronavirus by its genes had limitations.

The copies preserved in poor environments such as waste water were probably compromised and unlikely to produce full genome sequences, they said. It would be difficult to estimate a strain’s “age” by mutation because a genetic change appearing later in an international database may not mean it was younger than those sequenced earlier.

“A mutation could be in circulation for some time in a remote corner of the world,” said the researcher. “Can we say that it did not exist until sequencing?”

Comments

Albert Einstein 5 year ago
This information should make headlines in the major media. It should be on Fox and Friends with the message: Mr Trump, stop lying and calling the Wuhan virus!

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Elon Musk Receives $23.7 Billion Tesla Stock Award
Texas House Paralyzed After Democrats Walk Out Over Redistricting
Mexican Cartels Complicate Sheinbaum’s U.S. Security Talks
Mark Zuckerberg Declares War on the iPhone
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
Tesla Seeks Shareholder Approval for $29 Billion Compensation Package for Elon Musk
Nvidia is cutting prices on its RTX 50-series graphics cards after sales slowed and inventories piled up
Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison Amid Ongoing DOJ Discussions
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
Matt Taibbi Slams Media for Role in Russiagate Narrative
Pilots Call for Mental Health Support Without Stigma
All Five Trapped Miners Found Dead After El Teniente Mine Collapse
Ong Beng Seng Pleads Guilty in Corruption Case Linked to Former Singapore Transport Minister
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
Italy Fines Shein One Million Euros for Misleading Sustainability Claims
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
Declassified Annex Links Soros‑Affiliated Officials and Clinton Campaign to ‘Russiagate’ Narrative
UK's Online Safety Law: A Front for Censorship
Nationwide Protests Erupt in Brazil Demanding Presidential Resignation
Parents Abandon Child at Barcelona Airport Over Passport Issue
Mystery Surrounds Death of Brazilian Woman with iPhones Glued to Her Body
Bus Driver Discovers Toddler Hidden in Suitcase in New Zealand
Switzerland Celebrates 734 Years of Independence Amid Global Changes
U.S. Opens Official Investigation into Former Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith
Leaked audio of Canada's new PM Mark Carney admitting the truth about the Net Zero agenda: "We're gonna make a lot of money off of this."
China Enforces Comprehensive Ban on Cryptocurrency Activities
Absolutely 100% Realistic EVO Series Doll by EXDOLL (Chinese Company) used mainly for carnal purposes
World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab: "In this new world, we must accept... total transparency. You have to get used to it. You have to behave accordingly. But if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't be afraid."
Meet Mufti Hamid Patel, head of Office for Standards in Education in Pakistan
George Soros tells the World Economic Forum: "President Trump is a con man and the ultimate narcissist, who wants the world to revolve around him."
Hamas are STARVING the hostages.
Decline in Tourism in Majorca Amidst Ongoing Anti-Tourism Protests
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
Poland Begins Excavation at Dziemiany After New Clue to World War II‑Era Nazi Treasure
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Threatens Canada with Tariffs Over Palestinian State Recognition
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Trump Sues Murdoch in “Heavyweight Bout”: Lawsuit Over Alleged Epstein Letter Sets Stage for Courtroom Showdown
Germany Enters Fiscal Crisis as Cabinet Approves €174 Billion in New Debt
Trump Administration Finalizes Broad Tariff Increases on Global Trade Partners
J.K. Rowling Limits Public Engagements Citing Safety Fears
JD.com Launches €2.2 Billion Bid for German Electronics Retailer Ceconomy
Azerbaijan Proceeds with Plan to Legalise Casinos on Artificial Islands
Former Judge Charged After Drunk Driving Crash Kills Comedian in Brazil
Jeff Bezos hasn’t paid a dollar in taxes for decades. He makes billions and pays $0 in taxes, LEGALLY
China Increases Use of Exit Bans Amid Rising U.S. Tensions
×