New virus genetically closer to SARS-CoV-2 found in bats in China

New Delhi: Researchers in China have found a new coronavirus that is genetically closer to the novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2 – the cause of the global pandemic since the end of 2019.

The researchers from Shandong University had collected oral, faecal and urine samples from small, forest-dwelling bats in a tropical botanical garden in Yunnan province.

The research was being done to find out the range of coronaviruses found in bats and their potential to spread to humans and other animals.

The researchers stated that they have to date identified 24 genomes of coronaviruses, including 4 that are similar to SARS-CoV-2 and one that is genetically similar to it.

The researchers have drawn the conclusions that viruses related to the SARS-CoV-2 continue to circulate in the bat population.

The research and its results come out at a crucial time when calls for further investigation of the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is growing internationally with the theory that it is a lab-engineered virus that might have accidentally leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology gaining traction.