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A patient diagnosed with pneumonia near Paris on 27 December actually had the coronavirus, his doctor has said.
This means the virus may have arrived in Europe almost a month earlier than previously thought.
Dr Yves Cohen told French media a swab taken at the time was recently tested, and came back positive for Covid-19.
The patient, who has since fully recovered, said he had no idea where he caught the virus as he had not been to any infected areas.
Dr Cohen, head of emergency medicine at Avicenne and Jean-Verdier hospitals near Paris, said the patient was a 43-year-old man from Bobigny, north-east of Paris.
He was exhibiting what later became to be known as the main symptoms of coronavirus, including a dry cough, a fever and trouble breathing.
He was admitted to hospital on 27 December, four days before the World Health Organization's China country office was informed of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause being detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
The French patient told French broadcaster BFMTV that he had not travelled before falling sick.
Dr Cohen said two of the patient's children had fallen ill but that the wife had not shown any symptoms. But Dr Cohen pointed out that the patient's wife worked at a supermarket near Charles de Gaulle airport and could have come into contact with people who had recently arrived from China.
The patient's wife said that "often customers would come directly from the airport, still carrying their suitcases".
"We're wondering whether she was asymptomatic," Dr Cohen said. He called for the potential link to be investigated further.
