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. 2020 Mar;25(9):2000178.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.9.2000178.

First cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the WHO European Region, 24 January to 21 February 2020

Gianfranco Spiteri  1 , James Fielding  2 , Michaela Diercke  3 , Christine Campese  4 , Vincent Enouf  5 , Alexandre Gaymard  6 , Antonino Bella  7 , Paola Sognamiglio  8 , Maria José Sierra Moros  9 , Antonio Nicolau Riutort  10 , Yulia V Demina  11 , Romain Mahieu  12 , Markku Broas  13 , Malin Bengnér  14 , Silke Buda  3 , Julia Schilling  3 , Laurent Filleul  15 , Agnès Lepoutre  16 , Christine Saura  17 , Alexandra Mailles  4 , Daniel Levy-Bruhl  4 , Bruno Coignard  4 , Sibylle Bernard-Stoecklin  4 , Sylvie Behillil  5 , Sylvie van der Werf  5 , Martine Valette  6 , Bruno Lina  6 , Flavia Riccardo  7 , Emanuele Nicastri  8 , Inmaculada Casas  18 , Amparo Larrauri  19 , Magdalena Salom Castell  20 , Francisco Pozo  18 , Rinat A Maksyutov  21 , Charlotte Martin  22 , Marc Van Ranst  23 , Nathalie Bossuyt  24 , Lotta Siira  25 , Jussi Sane  26 , Karin Tegmark-Wisell  27 , Maria Palmérus  28 , Eeva K Broberg  1 , Julien Beauté  1 , Pernille Jorgensen  2 , Nick Bundle  1 , Dmitriy Pereyaslov  2 , Cornelia Adlhoch  1 , Jukka Pukkila  2 , Richard Pebody  2 , Sonja Olsen  2   29 , Bruno Christian Ciancio  1   29
Affiliations

First cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the WHO European Region, 24 January to 21 February 2020

Gianfranco Spiteri et al. Euro Surveill. 2020 Mar.

Abstract

In the WHO European Region, COVID-19 surveillance was implemented 27 January 2020. We detail the first European cases. As at 21 February, nine European countries reported 47 cases. Among 38 cases studied, 21 were linked to two clusters in Germany and France, 14 were infected in China. Median case age was 42 years; 25 were male. Late detection of the clusters' index cases delayed isolation of further local cases. As at 5 March, there were 4,250 cases.

Keywords: COVID-19; Novel coronavirus; SARS; SARS-COV-2; coronavirus disease 2019.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure
Figure
Epidemic curve of reported COVID-19 cases by date of symptom onset, or date of notification, WHO European Region, as at 21 February 2020 (n = 38)a,b
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