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. 2020 Jun;55(6):106006.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.106006. Epub 2020 May 3.

SARS-CoV-2 was already spreading in France in late December 2019

A Deslandes  1 , V Berti  1 , Y Tandjaoui-Lambotte  2 , Chakib Alloui  1 , E Carbonnelle  3 , J R Zahar  4 , S Brichler  1 , Yves Cohen  5
Affiliations

SARS-CoV-2 was already spreading in France in late December 2019

A Deslandes et al. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

The COVID-19 epidemic is believed to have started in late January 2020 in France. Here we report a case of a patient hospitalised in December 2019 in an intensive care unit in a hospital in the north of Paris for haemoptysis with no aetiological diagnosis. RT-PCR was performed retrospectively on the stored respiratory sample and confirmed the diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Based on this result, it appears that the COVID-19 epidemic started much earlier in France.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus disease 2019; France; Intensive care unit; SARS-CoV-2.

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Figures

Fig 1
Fig. 1
Selection process for testing. COVID-19, coronavirus 2019; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
Fig 2
Fig. 2
Result of Charité protocol RT-PCR assay : patient's curve in yellow; positive and negative test samples in purple.
Fig 3
Fig. 3
Chest computed tomography (CT) images at baseline. Bilateral pulmonary ground-glass opacities appear in the inferior lobes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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