Ministry of Health Finds Coronavirus Had Reached Brazil in January

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Ministry of Health reported on Thursday, April 2nd, that there was a patient hospitalized due to the novel coronavirus in Brazil in late January.

The hospitalization occurred around January 23rd, more than a month before the first known case of Covid-19 in the country, confirmed on February 26th.

The case was imported from another country, but its location has not been disclosed. It was found after retroactive investigations of materials collected from patients who had been hospitalized due to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The PCR type test was performed on the sample, the most reliable, and proved positive.

The Health Surveillance Secretary, Wanderson Oliveira, stated that something similar happened during the zika virus epidemic, which occurred in the country between 2015 and 2016. “Initially we thought the first cases were from April 2015. A year later, through retrospective investigation, we found that there were cases in blood banks in the Amazon region since April 2014”.

The states are investigating whether there were more such occurrences and this first detection will continue to be analyzed.

Source: Veja

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