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Updated: Dec 22, 2025

Author Spotlight: Advancements in Multiplex Detection of Respiratory Viruses
Published on: November 10, 2023
SARS-CoV-2 was already spreading in France in late December 2019
A Deslandes1, V Berti1, Y Tandjaoui-Lambotte2
1Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France, and Service de Microbiologie Clinique et Unité de Contrôle et de Prévention du Risque Infectieux, Groupe Hospitalier Paris Seine Saint-Denis, AP-HP, Bobigny, France.
Abstract:
The COVID-19 epidemic is believed to have started in late January 2020 in France. Here we report a case of a patient hospitalised in December 2019 in an intensive care unit in a hospital in the north of Paris for haemoptysis with no aetiological diagnosis. RT-PCR was performed retrospectively on the stored respiratory sample and confirmed the diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Based on this result, it appears that the COVID-19 epidemic started much earlier in France.
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