According to the Corriere della Sera newspaper, scientists have identified COVID-19 cases in Lombardy from as early as January 26, a month earlier than thought.
It’s reported the task force set up in Lombardy to analyse why the region was hit so hard has found that the virus was prevalent in Italy much sooner than previously believed.
The first official case in Italy was a man in Codogno, Lombardy, on February 20.
According to the Corriere della Sera newspaper, scientists have identified COVID-19 cases in Lombardy from as early as January 26, a month earlier than thought.
It’s reported the task force set up in Lombardy to analyse why the region was hit so hard has found that the virus was prevalent in Italy much sooner than previously believed.
The first official case in Italy was a man in Codogno, Lombardy, on February 20.
However, intensive testing and looking back over other cases that were mistaken for flu or pneumonia suggest coronavirus was present in the region from at least January 26.
It’s even claimed there were 543 positive cases within the region by then, with 46 in the capital Milan.
Lombardy is by far the epicentre of the pandemic in Italy, with 13,575 deaths registered out of a total 27,359 all over the country.
There have been 74,348 positive tests in Lombardy, compared to the next one down the list, Piedmont on 25,450 and Emilia-Romagna on 24,914.
While 25,029 have made a full recovery in this region, there are still 35,744 currently positive for COVID-19.
Again, this absolutely dwarfs the next region, Piedmont, who have 15,506.