A World Health Organization study in China into the origin of the coronavirus found that there may have been cases of coronavirus in China two months earlier than originally identified.
The four-week study found there were more than 90 people in central China who were hospitalized for coronavirus symptoms two months before December 8, 2019, the day China says the first coronavirus patient was found, the Wall Street Journal . reported.
The WHO wants China to test blood samples from a larger population from fall 2019 to confirm their theory, but Chinese authorities said they should not be testing them yet, WHO researchers told WSJ.
Chinese officials conducted antibody tests on some of the 90 patients who were found to have coronavirus symptoms last fall, but no antibodies were found in them. However, WHO researchers think they just waited too long to test them and the antibodies disappeared, WSJ says.
It is unclear how long antibodies survive in the body for the coronavirus, as there is debate whether they last for a few weeks or a few months.
Blood samples and medical records have been checked, but there is no evidence that the virus appeared before December 2019, Liang Wannian, head of the coronavirus panel of China’s National Health Commission, said on Tuesday:
More studies and blood samples are needed to determine if the coronavirus existed before December 2019.