PHOENIX - A study published on March 18 found that the novel coronavirus may have been lingering undetected as early as October 2019, two months before the first reported human case of infection in Wuhan, China in December. "It is highly probable that SARS-CoV-2 was circulating in Hubei province at low levels in early-November 2019 and possibly as early as October 2019, but not earlier," study authors said.Researchers at the University of Arizona, University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Illumina, Inc.
used molecular dating tools and found that the pandemic might not have happened if not for a few key events. "It was a perfect storm — we know now that it had to catch a lucky break or two to actually firmly become.