This stunning news has come from Barcelona city of Spain. Spanish virologists from the University of Barcelona claim they've detected coronavirus in sewage samples which were collected way back on 12th March 2019, in the Catalonia region.

It means that SARS-CoV-2 that causes the disease has been with us much longer than previously thought. The finding comes from a single sample and researchers say more would be needed to confirm the result.

Most public health experts are still skeptical about the findings as it's based on a single sample but if it's proven to be the case, it would mean the presence of novel coronavirus was discovered nine months before the virus was first identified in Wuhan city of China that later led to the current global pandemic.

Previously, the researchers had found the traces of coronavirus in sewage samples of Barcelona on 15 January of this year over a month before the first case was confirmed in the country. It must be noted that sewage samples taken in Italy and France have also suggested the presence of coronavirus as early as December 2019.

But this new revelation is way more shocking. The team analyzed frozen waster water samples from nine different dates between January 2018 and December 2019. All the samples came back negative for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material, except for low levels that were found in the March 12, 2019 sample.

Dr. Joan Ramon Villalbi of the Spanish Society for Public Health and Sanitary Administration told Reuters this on the new findings:

“When it’s just one result, you always want more data, more studies, more samples to confirm it, and rule out a laboratory error or a methodological problem. But it’s definitely interesting, it’s suggestive.”

The research has been submitted for peer review after the sample was found by a team from the University of Barcelona, which has been testing sewage water since mid-April.

Barcelona research team believes that some particularly severe influenza cases that were reported in the months prior to the novel coronavirus emergence may have actually been COVID-19 cases. Researchers wrote this in their findings:

“It has been suggested that some uncharacterized influenza cases may have masked COVID-19 cases in the 2019-2020 season. Those infected with COVID-19 could have been diagnosed with flu in primary care by mistake, contributing to community transmission before the public health took measures."