The novel coronavirus rampant around the world is not from Wuhan's central Chinese city, but a mutation from northern Italy, top German virologist Alexander Kekule said in a ZDF interview.
The Italian strain is called "G" mutant, which has genetic mutations, explained Prof. Kekule on the ZDF talk show. It is likely to be more contagious than the variant found in Wuhan, where was once the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in China.
Over 99 percent of the COVID-19 cases can be genetically traced back to the Italian variant, and even the current cases in China are re-imported from Europe and the rest of the world, the German news agency Weser Courier reported citing the virologist.
He noted that for a global pandemic, the starting shot was fired in northern Italy.
The expert said Italy's long ignorance of the warnings from China and lack of countermeasures is to blame, otherwise, the original virus could have been brought under control.
