PARIS, May 6 (WNM/Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security) - A commentary published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents suggests that SARS-CoV-2 was circulating in France in December 2019, a month before the country’s first reported case (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924857920301643#!).

The study analyzed retained samples from patients with influenza-like illness from early December 2019 to mid-January 2020 with negative PCR tests for other respiratory infections, including influenza.

The researchers conducted RT-PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2 on specimens from 14 patients that matched their criteria, and 1 specimen returned a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result. The patient’s clinical presentation and radiological patterns were consistent with those reported in early COVID-19 patients in China and Italy.

Notably, the patient’s medical history included no travel or other direct links to China, which suggests that community transmission may have occurred earlier than previously thought.