Virus confirmed, March 2019

Viral origins
https://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/menu_eines/noticies/2020/06/042.html

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.13.20129627v1

SARS-CoV-2 detected in waste waters in Barcelona on 12th March, 2019

Wuhan, Early December, 2019

Europe, France late January

Cases in France, late 2019

First case in Barcelona, reported in 25th February 2020

Even in respiratory samples, infectivity is only associated with very high genome copy numbers

Method

2 plants in Barcelona

Frozen 800 ml archival samples

2018 (January-March)

2019 (January, March, September-December)

All samples came out to be negative for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genomes

With the exception of March 12, 2019, in which both IP2 and IP4 target assays were positive

Next detection, 15th January

41 days before first official case in Spain on 25th February

Sentinel surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater would enable adoption of immediate measures in the event of future COVID-19 waves.

Albert Bosch, president, Spanish Society of Virology

Barcelona receives many visitors for both tourist and professional reasons

it is possible for a similar situation to have taken place in other parts of the world

since most of the COVID-19 cases show a similar symptomatology to the flu,

those cases could have been disguised as an undiagnosed flu