COVID-19 existed worldwide before emerging in China; Oxford University expert

LONDON: The novel coronavirus has existed worldwide and broke out whenever and wherever favourable conditions occurred before it emerged in China last December leading to the ongoing global pandemic, an Oxford University expert said.

"I think the virus was already here — here meaning everywhere. We may be seeing a dormant virus that has been activated by environmental conditions," Xinhua news agency quoted Tom Jefferson, a senior associate tutor at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) at Oxford and a visiting professor at Newcastle University, as saying.

"There was a case in the Falkland Islands in early February. Now where did that come from? There was a cruise ship that went from South Georgia to Buenos Aires, and the passengers were screened and then on day eight, when they started sailing towards the Weddell Sea, they got the first case. Was it in prepared food that was defrosted and activated?"

"Strange things like this happened with Spanish Flu. In 1918, around 30 per cent of the population of Western Samoa died of Spanish Flu, and they hadn't had any communication with the outside world," Jefferson added.

"The explanation for this could only be that these agents don't come or go anywhere. They are always here and something ignites them, maybe human density or environmental conditions, and this is what we should be looking for," he stressed. (IANS)

Also Watch: Rs 1.30 Lakh Fine Collected For Lockdown Violations in Kokrajhar