Stefano Merler, of Bruno Kessler Foundation, says 'We realized that there were a lot of infected people in Lombardy well before 20 Fe, which means the epidemic had started much earlier' Rome: The first COVID-19 infections in Italy date back to January, according to a scientific study presented on Friday, shedding new light on the origins of the outbreak in one of the world's worst-affected countries.
Italy began testing people after diagnosing its first local patient on Feb 21 in Codogno, a small town in the wealthy Lombardy region.
Cases and deaths immediately surged, with scientists soon suspecting that the virus had been around, unnoticed, for weeks. Stefano Merler, of the Bruno Kessler Foundation, told a news conference with Italy's