Wuhan was the unique epicentre of the brand new coronavirus outbreak in China (Reuters)
London:
The coronavirus might need been spreading in China as early as August final yr, in keeping with Harvard Medical School analysis based mostly on satellite tv for pc photos of hospital journey patterns and search engine information, however China dismissed the report as “ridiculous”.
The analysis used satellite tv for pc imagery of hospital parking tons in Wuhan – the place the illness was first recognized in late 2019 – and information for symptom-related queries on engines like google for issues corresponding to “cough” and “diarrhoea”.
“Increased hospital traffic and symptom search data in Wuhan preceded the documented start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in December 2019,” in keeping with the analysis.
“While we cannot confirm if the increased volume was directly related to the new virus, our evidence supports other recent work showing that emergence happened before identification at the Huanan Seafood market (in Wuhan).”
The analysis may be seen: https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/42669767
“These findings also corroborate the hypothesis that the virus emerged naturally in southern China and was potentially already circulating at the time of the Wuhan cluster,” in keeping with the analysis.
It confirmed a steep enhance in hospital automotive park occupancy in August 2019.
“In August, we identify a unique increase in searches for diarrhoea which was neither seen in previous flu seasons or mirrored in the cough search data,” in keeping with the analysis.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, requested concerning the analysis at a every day press briefing on Tuesday, dismissed the findings.
“I think it is ridiculous, incredibly ridiculous, to come up with this conclusion based on superficial observations such as traffic volume,” she mentioned.
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