A Norwegian study shows that the coronavirus was likely far more widespread in Europe and around the world in 2019, according to a study published in the Cambridge University Press epidemiology and infection journal.

The study, carried out by scientists at Akershus University Hospital near Oslo, claimed a pregnant woman was probably infected at the end of November or the beginning of December of 2019, by identifying a positive coronavirus result in her blood sample taken on December 12, 2019.

In China, the first cases with a new viral pneumonia was first announced on December 31, 2019, by the Wuhan municipal health authorities. The first SARS-CoV-2 infections recognized in Europe were three imported cases in France on January 24, 2020. With the latest findings, the study suggests that the SARS-CoV-2 had spread beyond China before 2020.  

According to Eurosurveillance, Europe's journal on infectious disease surveillance, epidemiology, prevention and control, the first three European cases were confirmed in France on January 24, 2020. In May 2020 it was reported that another French patient (treated for pneumonia in hospital on December 27, 2019) tested positive for COVID-19 after a swab taken at the time was analysed.

Anne Eskild, professor and chief physician at Akershus, claimed their findings changed the history of the corona epidemic not only in Norway, but also the world.

"We actually found four out of 1,500 tests on pregnant women that were positive before the first case in France was diagnosed," Eskild added.

Professor Eskild's research shows that the virus was around long before the French cases. "The catchment area of our hospital includes women who come from all over the world. I think that some of the women who were positive were born or had been in, or had relatives or visitors from places all over the world", she explained.

"The conclusion to this is that since the women in our catchment area are from all over the world, the virus may have been all over the world before the Chinese announced the epidemic."