First Covid-19 case in France have been as early as December, new evidence suggests

The first coronavirus case in France could have occurred a month earlier than official figures suggest, according to a professor from Avicenne Hospital, following the retesting of 24 patient blood samples.

Professor Yves Cohen from the Avicenne Hospital in Bobigny said in an interview with local media that it appears that Covid-19 was already in France at the end of 2019 – rather than in January-February 2020 – as had previously been thought.

A decision was made to retest 24 samples of blood from patients who were admitted in December with respiratory infections but had tested negative for the flu. Out of the 24 samples retested, one male patient came back positive for Covid-19.

“We’ve reanalyzed all negative tests on people who were diagnosed with pneumonia. Of the 24 patients, we found one who resulted positive to Covid-19 on December 27 when he was taken to our Avicenne Hospital,” said Cohen. He confirmed that the patient in question has fully recovered and “is well.”

Now, people in France are worried about the number of pneumonia patients that have been misdiagnosed. Also, questions mount on whether new figures will affect the extent to which the current global coronavirus figures reflect the true picture of the pandemic spread and whether governments acted early enough to contain the virus.