The coronavirus spreading in New York most likely came from Europe and not directly from China, a new study has found.

Genetic analysis

Genetic analysis of samples taken from 84 Covid-19 patients in New York city showed "limited evidence" of direct introductions from China, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York found.

Instead, most cases probably originated from Italy, Finland, Spain and France and other European countries, the study stated.

The new study was published in Science magazine at the end of May 2020.

It said that in most cases, the source of the infection was "untracked transmission between the U.S. and Europe", which changes the current narrative substantially as the origins of the virus have been pinned on China, where it was first identified at the end of 2019.

"Notably, the majority of introductions appear to have been sourced from Europe and the USA," the study said.

The researchers also found that local transmission in New York is likely to have contributed to the early community spread.

How study was done

The study was based on the genetic analysis of viral genotypes collected from 84 patients between Feb. 29 and March 18.

They were cared for under the Mount Sinai Health System, a hospital network in the New York metropolitan area.

A total of 44 women and 40 men aged from their 20s to their 80s provided samples.

How a virus spreads around the world can be traced by examining small mutations in its gene sequence.

The sequence changes as the virus is transmitted from person to person.

Not first time this link made

The findings of imported infections to the U.S. from Europe is not new.

Previously, a study carried out in April by genome scientists from NYU Langone Health, an academic medical centre in New York, found that about two-thirds of the infections appeared to have been imported from Britain, France, Austria and the Netherlands.

They discovered this after looking at viral samples from 75 Covid-19 patients in the city.

New York reported its first coronavirus case on Feb. 29.

More than 200,000 people in the city have contracted Covid-19 and more than 20,000 have died since then.

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