Italian researchers recently discovered that the new coronavirus was found in oropharyngeal swab samples from children with suspected measles collected in December last year.
Researchers from the University of Milan, Italy, published a paper in the online edition of the American Journal of Novel Infectious Diseases, saying that they tested 39 oropharyngeal swab samples collected between September 2019 and February 2020. These samples were from suspected measles but ultimately Patients who tested negative for measles.
It was found that a sample of a 4-year-old boy living near Milan, Italy tested positive for the new crown virus.
This oropharyngeal swab sample was collected on December 5, 2019. The boy had no history of travel before that time.
Researchers conducted genetic sequencing of the virus and found that the genome sequence of the virus strain was 100% identical to the reference sequence of the new coronavirus that appeared in Wuhan.
The researchers said in the paper that the time of this case was significantly earlier than that of the country's first confirmed case of new crowns previously announced by the Italian official. It is speculated that there may be new cases of new crowns in Italy and other European countries at the end of last fall.
This speculation is consistent with the inferences of some previous studies.