In a new research conducted by Weifeg Shi of the University of Shandong and his colleagues in a small region of Yunnan province, southwestern China shows that they had found a batch of new coronaviruses in bats and they may be genetically the second-closest to the Covid-19 virus.
In a report published in the journal cell, the chinese researchers from Shandong University said, “In total, we assembled 24 novel coronavirus genomes from different bat species, including four SARS-Cov-2 like coronaviruses”.
The samples were collected from small, forest dwelling bats between May 2019 and November 2020. The researchers say that they tested the urine and feces as well as taking swabs from the bat’s mouth. This discovery of the new coronaviruses in bats comes amid growing calls for a timely, transparent and evidence-based independent process for the next phase of the WHO-convened Covid-19 origin study.
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