A French doctor claimed the country saw its first coronavirus patient in December, weeks before its first officially recorded case.
Dr Yves Cohen, head of resuscitation at several hospitals in Ile-de-France, Paris, said new patient sample testing has confirmed the virus was in France just after Christmas.
His team revisited negative tests for coronavirus and flu of 24 patients who were admitted to hospital with respiratory symptoms in December and January, he told French channel BFMTV.
Dr Yves Cohen, head of resuscitation at several hospitals in Ile-de-France, Paris, said new patient sample testing has confirmed a patient in France had coronavirus on December 27
A man, now in good health, was identified as carrying coronavirus but Dr Cohen said the man was ‘surprised’ as he did not understand how he was infected.
He said: ‘Of the 24 patients, we had one positive result for Covid-19 on 27 December when he was in hospital with us.’
He said his team repeated the tests to confirm the results, Metro reported.
This would make the country’s first case a month earlier than they initially thought.
Dr Cohen is calling for other negative test samples from around the same time to be reviewed and he has reported the case to the regional health authorities.
This comes as France announced it is planning to lift lockdown on May 11, when children will gradually return to schools in phases and some businesses will be allowed to reopen.
People queue outside a supermarket in Paris on May 4 as France said it will gradually begin to lift lockdown on May 11
People will be allowed to travel within 100km (60 miles) of their homes without giving a reason for their movement.
But Health Minister Olivier Véran said it would depend on further falls in infection rates, particularly in the worst-affected areas like Paris and northeast France.
Video cameras will be used to spy on people to check they are wearing face masks and complying with social distancing in France, it was revealed today.
The city of Cannes on the southern Côte d’Azur has trialled the monitoring software, installed at outdoor markets and on buses.
It is not currently clear how many other cities will adopt this digital surveillance but the French firm Datakalab – a startup launched in 2017 – says its software does not violate EU data privacy law.
Video cameras will be used to spy on people to check they are wearing face masks and complying with social distancing when France eases its lockdown next week (file image)
‘No image is stored or transmitted, ensuring that personal information is protected,’ Datakalab told The BBC, announcing its collaboration with Cannes city hall.
The French surveillance system includes an automatic alert to city authorities and police where breaches of the mask and distancing rules are spotted.
Datakalab says it is ‘not facial recognition’, as the system does not store identifying data, unlike surveillance common in China.
It added that its algorithms can be incorporated into existing surveillance systems in other public spaces, such as hospitals, stations, airports and shopping centres.
The number of new deaths from COVID-19 in France has been declining in recent days, with 135 fatalities reported over the past 24 hours on Sunday.
French authorities also confirmed it will not be quarantining travellers arriving from the European Union and Britain.
This clarified their conflicting statement from Saturday, when the government said it was planning to impose a 14-day mandatory quarantine on all travellers entering France.
When lockdown begins to be lifted, people will be allowed to travel within 100km (60 miles) of their homes without giving a reason for their movement
They have now said the quarantine won’t apply to people coming from Europe’s border-free area, including Switzerland, Norway, Lichtenstein and Iceland.
More quarantine rules for those arriving from other places will be released in the next few days.
France are also debating a new bill to extend a ‘state of health emergency’ until July 24 to stop the spread of coronavirus.
France has had more than 131,000 confirmed cases and 24,895 deaths, but the number of new cases has dramatically dropped since the middle of April.