In Paris the first Corleone case was in December and the patient had no travel history

If this is verified, it may indicate that the virus has been flowing into Europe since December. Avid-19's first reports in France were reported on January 24th, on two persons with a travel story in Huhan, China.

“Cavid-19 had already spread to France in late December 2019, a month before the country's first official case,” wrote the team at the Paris Senine Hostitarian Group in Saint-Denis.

Yves Cohen and colleagues at the Paris hospital decided to check the records of patients who got sick before the January 24th cases to see if the virus could have spread undiscovered earlier than thought.

The French team made a search for people admitted to hospital with flulike diseases between December 2nd and January 16th, but who were not later diagnosed with the flu. Doctors reworked sample stored in the coronavirus refrigerator.

“A sample was positive, taken from a 42-year-old man born in Algeria who lived in France for many years and worked as a fisherman,” The team wrote in the International Journal of Antimicribial Agents.

His last “was in Algeria during August 2019”, They wrote. The man had not been to China, and one of his children had also been ill, the team reported.

The identity of the first infected patient is of great epidemiological interest as it dramatically changes our knowledge of SARS-COV-2 and its expansion in the country. Moreover, the lack of a link to China and the lack of recent trips suggest that the disease was spreading to the French population in late December 2019, “writes them.

Remember: This request has not yet been independently verified.

Europe did not start reporting Coronavirus cases until January. In Italy, the most virus-hit European country, the first two cases were reported on January 31st, on two Chinese tourists in Rome.