The novel coronavirus began spreading in
New York City in February, before widespread testing began, and the strain so far identified in local samples came from Europe, a scientist said Wednesday.
Adriana Heguy, a geneticist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine who led the research, told AFP that tracing back the virus' chain of transmission will help policy makers make better informed social interventions in the future.
"It's very interesting that so far, the majority seem to be coming from Europe, and this is in part I think because there was a focus on stopping travel from
China," she said.