The virus that causes Covid-19 could have started spreading in China as early as October 2019, two months before the first case was identified in the central city of Wuhan, a new study showed.

Researchers from Britain's University of Kent used methods from conservation science to estimate that SARS-CoV-2 first appeared from early October to mid-November 2019, according to a paper published in the PLOS Pathogens journal.

The most likely date for the virus's emergence was November 17, 2019, and it had probably already spread globally by January 2020, they estimated.

China's first official Covid-19 case was in December 2019 and was linked to Wuhan's Huanan seafood market. However, some early cases had no known connection with Huanan, implying that SARS-CoV-2 was already circulating before it reached the market, Reuters reports.