Cover news reporter Tang Chen
On May 8, the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Colmar, alsace region of eastern France, reported that France's first suspected case of COVID-19 could date back to November 16 last year. If this suspected case is confirmed, it will be about 9 weeks earlier than the official record of the country's first confirmed case that has been announced.
A few days ago, the hospital's imaging department completed screening for the results of 2,456 chest scans conducted between November 1 last year and April 30 this year. The screening is in response to a call from the World Health Organization (WHO) that countries should begin investigating cases of pneumonia-like since late last year to get a clearer picture of how the new disease is transmitted.
In a press release issued by the hospital, Dr Michel Schmidt, head of the screening programme and director of the hospital's imaging department, said, "Based on the screening of these chest X-rays, the first case of the new coronavirus in France dates back to November 16, but from November to February last year, the rate of transmission of the virus has been very slow, and from the end of February, the number of cases has increased rapidly." ”
According to a press release from the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, the first case of COVID-19 in France dates back to 16 November
The hospital did not disclose the case's travel history or whether he had links with China.
According to Dr. Schmidt, cases sporadically appeared in mid-November after the first case, and the number of cases began to increase after a large number of events such as the Christmas holiday and family reunions.
The hospital said it would work with the French National Centre for Scientific Research to conduct an epidemiological investigation of its findings.
A few days ago, local French media reported evidence from another study, once bringing the "patient zero" timeline to December 27. Yves Cohen, head of the intensive care unit of two hospitals in France's Paris Public Hospital Group, told reporters on May 3 that his two hospitals, located in the Seine-Saint-Denis department near Paris, recently re-tested samples taken from 24 pneumonia patients between December and January this year. It turned out that a man who was admitted to the hospital on December 27 last year and has now recovered tested positive for the new crown virus. He did not travel out in the period before he fell ill. Researchers have published papers online in the International Journal of Antimicrobials.
These findings could significantly push forward the timing of the first COVID-19 case in France and Europe. Previously, the French government had announced that the first confirmed case of new crown was on January 24, which was also the first time that a confirmed case of new crown was reported in Europe.
According to France Bleu, in addition to the hospital, a number of hospitals in Places such as Strasbourg and Nancy in France have said they will screen the chest X-rays of patients admitted to the hospital.
With the deepening of epidemic research, in recent days, the timeline of epidemic development in the United States, Britain, France, Australia and other countries has been continuously rewritten, and the time point of suspected "patient zero" or local spread of the epidemic has been greatly pushed forward.
On April 30, Michael Merom, mayor of Belleville, New Jersey, said he had recently tested positive for antibodies to the new coronavirus and that he believed he had been ill in November because he had contracted the new coronavirus.
On March 25, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that an Englishman named Darren Brand was suspected of being "Patient Zero" in Britain. Between 15 and 19 January, he travelled to Ischgl, Austria, to ski and returned home with the typical symptoms of the new crown virus. The first official report of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the UK was on January 31.
For some time, because of the increasing criticism and accusations in the United States, the presidential election polls have been declining, and the Trump administration has repeatedly attacked China with arguments such as "the virus comes from Wuhan" and "the virus is artificially made", trying to shirk its responsibility for its early passive response to the epidemic. Therefore, the continuous discovery and reporting of these cases is undoubtedly the loudest response to the fallacy of the Trump administration.
Liu Peipei, an expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council at the end of April that tracing "patient zero" involves a very complicated amount of data, coupled with the fact that early CASEs of covid-19 may be in asymptomatic infection and lack of medical records, making it very difficult to trace. Each country traces its own "Patient Zero", and many parties should work together to carry out relevant work.
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