Coronavirus 'patient zero' in UK may have caught COVID-19 back in Jan.

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The first COVID-19 patient in the UK may have appeared a month earlier than previously assumed, as

The Sunday Times

reported that a 53-year-old woman claimed to have caught the disease on January 6.

Antibody tests showed that she has recovered from the deadly virus, which swept the whole world killing more than 400,000.

Susannah Ford told the media that she became ill after skiing in Austria.

She reported muscle and joint pains. "It felt like death," she said.

The early infection time may indicate that the pandemic hit the UK from a different path, or possibly originated from the country. It's still unknown to scientists where exactly the virus first existed.

CGTN Digital cannot independently check if she actually caught the disease in January at the moment. We will update the story when we have more information.