Thread by @fascinatorfun

UK patient zero? East Sussex family may have been infected with coronavirus as early as mid-January

If true then COVID was in the U.K. by 19 January, brought in from a ski resort in Ischigl, Austria & spread all around the world from there

Explains a lot telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

Daren Bland went skiing with friends from Denmark and Minessota from 15-19 January.

On returning home they all fell ill with CV19 like symptoms, before our first recorded case on 30 Jan.

Daren’s wife & children then fell ill. And many others in East Sussex subsequently.

The ski resort is being investigated by Austrian prosecutors for covering up the infection.

Cases from Germany, Iceland, Norway and a Denmark have been traced back to the resort.

But neither Daren nor his family were tested
They may not have realised they had COVID at the time?

It looks as if they only realised it might be COVID when news got out that several cases were traced back to the resort.

A reliable antibody test would be both a blessing and help us understand how it transmitted here. East Sussex and the S East was an early hot spot

Viral genome sequencing too would be very useful too for the geographic markers it produces. I am not sure what the research programmes here are delivering on that score.

Spain has done (and published) a lot.

It wasn’t until 13/3/20 that the Ischgl resort was shut down.