Researchers from University of Barcelona have claimed that SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes Covid-19 disease was detected in samples of waste water in the Spanish city way back in March last year.
Covid-19 was announced in Wuhan, China in early December in 2019 and reached every place worldwide later, including Europe.
The first case in Europe was announced in France in late January 2020 but this chronology on the evolution of the disease can change according to a study led by the University of Barcelona, in collaboration with Aigues de Barcelona.
“All samples were negatives regarding the SARS-CoV-2 genome presence except for March 12, 2019, in which the levels of SARS-CoV-2 were low but were positive, using two different targets”, the researchers wrote.
“In the specific case of Barcelona, having detected the SARS-CoV-2 spread a month before could have improved the response to the pandemic,” he noted.
Although Covid-19 is a respiratory disease, researchers proved there are large quantities of the coronavirus genome in the excrements that reach waste waters.
