There's new information surrounding coronavirus coming out on a regular basis with researchers across the world trying to figure out as much as they can about the novel virus. However, the latest development in the coronavirus research might indicate that it's been around longer than anyone actually initially knew.
According to CNN, researchers in Britain have found out that the virus may have been circulating since late 2019. The study that was published in the Infection, Genetics and Evolution journal used 7,500 samples from a global database of those diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2.
"Phylogenetic estimates support that the COVID-2 pandemic started sometime around Oct. 6, 2019 to Dec. 11, 2019, which corresponds to the time of the host jump into humans," it reads in the pandemic. With the first reported case happening in Dec. 2019, there's a good chance the virus' ability to spread made its way to Europe and the U.S.A. way before the virus was actually identified as such.
The study does reveal the first reported case wasn't too far removed from the transmission from animal to human.
"It's very recent," Francois Balloux, genetic researcher at UCL's Genetics Institute told CNN. "We are really, really, really confident that the host jump happened late last year."
We'll keep you posted on any more updates regarding the coronavirus pandemic.