Study: Italy had coronavirus in sewage as early as December

“Traces of SARS-Cov-2 have been found in samples of waste water taken in Milan and Turin on Dec. 18 and in Bologna on Jan. 29,” said Giuseppina La Rosa, who led the research for a coming study from the country’s ISS National Health Institute. “More traces were detected in other test samples through January and February.”…

Hospital tests in the coastal region of Liguria have also indicated the likelihood that the virus was present in the country at the end of last year, Italian newspapers have reported. Italy’s earliest reported domestic virus cases have been linked to a man who sought treatment in mid-February of this year, though some people arriving from abroad had been diagnosed with the disease earlier in the winter.