The first COVID-19 patient in the UK may have appeared a month earlier than previously assumed, as The Sunday Times reported that a 53-year-old woman claimed to have caught the disease on January 6. 

Antibody tests showed that she has recovered from the deadly virus, which has swept the whole world killing more than 400,000. 

Susannah Ford told the media that she became ill after skiing in Austria. 

She reported muscle and joint pains. "It felt like death," she said, adding that she did not go to any clubs or discos and ate in the hotel every night. When she was checked, doctors suggested her symptoms may have been caused by a Vitamin D deficiency. 

The antibody tests cannot confirm the exact date when she became infections, but Ford says she thinks her illness in January was COVID-19.

The early infection time may indicate that the pandemic hit the UK from a different path, or possibly originated from the country.  

Data gathered through the COVID-19 symptom-tracking app designed by King's College London, found hundreds of its more than two million users had suffered similar COVID-19 symptoms shortly after the new year.  

Epidemiologist professor Tim Spector also said: "The reports I am getting are from people who were ill from early January onwards and strongly suggest they had COVID-19 but were not recognized as such." 

In addition, it was reported recently that a man treated for suspected pneumonia in a hospital near Paris on December 27 had later tested positive for COVID-19. This has added the possibility that the new coronavirus entered Europe earlier than previously thought.  

However, it's still unknown to scientists where exactly the virus first existed.  

CGTN Digital cannot independently check if she actually caught the disease in January at the moment. We will update the story when we have more information.