The world’s first known Covid-19 case was woman working at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan – not an accountant with no links to the place, according to a US study.
The 41-year-old man was widely thought to be the first case because symptoms from dental work he had were confused with those from the virus he caught days later.
A joint study by China and the World Health Organization (WHO) this year all but ruled out the theory that Covid-19 originated in a laboratory.
The report says the most likely hypothesis is that it infected humans naturally, and was probably transmitted from bats to humans through another animal but that further research was needed.
Now a new study published in the journal Science says the seafood vendor is the earliest known case, as her symptoms started on 11 December 2019.
When interviewed, the accountant reported that his Covid-19 symptoms started with a fever on 16 December. His illness reported on 8 December was a dental problem related to baby teeth retained into adulthood, the report says.
