Waste water study finds coronavirus was already in Italy in December

Italy's national health institute in a study concluded that coronavirus was already present in two cities in northern Italy in December two months before the first COVID-19 case was officially reported.

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The ISS institute said that waste water collected in Milan and Turin last year including in Bologna showed genetic traces of COVID-19.

A team of waste water quality experts examined 40 samples from October last year till February this year to arrive at a conclusion. The team traced coronavirus samples in Milan and Turin on December 18, 2019 and Bologna on January 29, 2020.

China had reported the first case of the virus to the World Health Organization on December 31, 2019.

Earlier, a Spanish study had found genetic traces of the virus in waste water samples collected in mid-January in Barcelona.

Italy was severely hit due to the virus as it ordered a nationwide lockdown in end March. The first reported case of the virus was in Codogno in the Lombardy region as the government declared it a Red Zone.

There have been 34,500 coronavirus related deaths in the country with several thousand still infected with the virus.