Chinese state media links the origin of coronavirus with ITALY after Milan professor said doctors there remembered seeing 'very strange' pneumonia last year

Chinese media outlets have linked the origin of the pandemic with after a Milan-based professor said doctors there saw 'very strange' pneumonia cases as early as November.

Beijing is now rejecting the widely held assessment that the city of Wuhan is the birthplace of the global outbreak after the number of daily infections there dropped to zero but soared in Europe.

State-run news organisations including The Global Times and CCTV have flocked to report on comments made by Italian professor Giuseppe Remuzzi.

The Bérgamo-born expert claimed that the disease could have circulated in Italy for months before people became aware of the outbreak in .

Professor Remuzzi, Director of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, said in an interview last week that local doctors 'remember having seen very strange pneumonias [sic], very severe, particularly in old people, in December and even in November.'

He told American news organisation : 'It means that the virus was circulating at least in Lombardy before we were aware of this outbreak occurring in China.'

His comments were quickly seized by China's tightly controlled press, which used them to prove that the global health crisis did not start in China.

State newspaper reported that 'virus might already be spreading in Italy before the epidemic erupted in China'.

While state broadcaster cited another interview of professor Remuzzi to stressed that 'unknown pneumonia appeared in Italy as early as October last year'.

Media censors who are usually vigilant against rumours have also allowed Chinese social media users to spread similar claims about the virus emerging in Italy earlier than China.

On popular social media app WeChat, numerous posts, some by independent media, have shown their support for the allegation.

said 'analysis from Italian experts show the novel coronavirus did not originate in China'.

Without naming a specific study, the post said that the coronavirus started to spread in Italy in autumn, citing 'new data released by Italy and reported by foreign media'.

Faced with controversy, professor Remuzzi told Shanghai-based outlet in a report on Monday that his information came from a few doctors, but no evidence suggested that those patients had COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

In another interview with independent Chinese outlet , the professor said the key point of his comments was how far the virus had spread before it was discovered, not where it came from.

MailOnline has contacted professor Remuzzi for comments on the matter.

Interestingly, Chinese media's attention on professor Remuzzi's remarks seems to contradict with their reports about the first coronavirus patients in Italy.

Cover News, an outlet under state-run Sichuan Daily Group, reported that the very first confirmed sufferers of COVID-19 in Italy were a couple from Wuhan.

, released on Monday, said the couple arrived in Italy on January 23 and were treated in Rome.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...=1490&ito=1490

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FYI.. penamaan virus wuhan awalnya oleh media china sendiri Gombal times, di modif dikit sama si trump jadi virus china, boleh dong