Covid-19 on February 21. She is also believed to have been the first woman in the UK to die after contracting the disease. Previously, a Surrey man was believed to have been the first to have caught the virus.
The findings have only just now come to light as samples were being analysed in retrospect by researchers as they investigated the pandemic’s origins.Some 2,000 routine respiratory samples taken from patients at the Queen’s Medical Centre between January and March were tested.The report stated: “Patient one in this study is, to the best of our knowledge, the earliest described community-acquired case of SARS-CoV-2in the UK, admitted to hospital care on February 21.“She was also the first UK Covid-19 death, preceding the earliest known.