The coronavirus was spreading in the UK weeks before the first case was detected, according to a leading epidemiologist.
Professor Tim Spector has collated reports of people falling ill with “classic symptoms” of the disease from the start of January.
It suggests the disease was well established before two people from China became the UK’s first confirmed cases on January 31.
Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, gathered the reports through the 2.6m people signed up to his team’s Covid Symptom Tracker app, where they report their past and present health status.
So many of those using the app have reported having symptoms in January, Spector said, that it is highly likely the disease was circulating soon after new year. Some
