Security agencies investigating possibility coronavirus spread in Wuhan as early as October

Beijing’s Military World Games may have contributed to the start and spread of Covid-19, Kim Sengupta reports

Barbecue meat at a market in Wuhan in April: the first known cluster of Covid-19 was in a wet market (Getty)

Investigations by international security agencies into the start and spread of coronavirus, and alleged attempts by the Chinese government to suppress information about it, are examining a time period in autumn when the Military World Games were held in Wuhan.

The event took place over nine days in October last year and 10,000 athletes from more than 100 countries participated. The Chinese authorities told the World Health Organisation three months later that they had seen “no clear evidence of human to human transmission of the novel coronavirus”.

There is now, however, growing evidence from scientific research that coronavirus was present in Wuhan in October and possibly prior to that as well.