How did the corona virus enter

HOW DID THE CORONA VIRUS ENTER SPAIN?

According to the genetic study of Sars-CoV-2, everything indicates that it entered our country from Germany and England.

As the coronavirus has spread, it has accumulated mutations, these are small modifications in its genetic material that are produced by the mere fact of making copies of itself.

By studying these mutations, geneticists, by tracking geographically and temporally, can find out where they came from.

There are currently at least twenty laboratories around the world doing this genetic screening of Sars-CoV-2, and sending their data to a platform, Nextstrain, an open source project. With the data received, they have developed an interactive map that allows to follow the contagion line in any country in the world. The map shows that the virus has entered countries through different routes.

HOW IT GOT HERE

The virus travelled from China directly to northern Europe, hitting Germany and England. It entered Europe several times and analysts suggest that an outbreak that appeared in Munich (Germany) could be the focus that reached Spain. This first patient appears to be a 33-year-old German businessman. As of February 1, about a quarter of the new infections in Europe appeared genetically similar to those in the Munich group.

In Spain, the first confirmed case was identified in La Gomera on January 31. It was about a German tourist who had had contact with a sick patient in his country. However, the origin of the outbreak that emerged in early March in Spain is unknown.

The University of Valencia and the Fisabio Foundation deciphered the genetic codes of three samples of infected patients from the Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia. The data was also sent to Nextstrain. It was found that one of the strains analysed is related to those already identified in other European countries: Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, France, Scotland, the Netherlands and others. In conclusion, at least with the information to date, the coronavirus came upon us from northern Europe.