Breaking

New coronavirus found in bats is 'closest relative' to SARS-CoV-2 seen yet - Fox News
May 28, 2020 1 min, 3 secs

Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here. .

A newly published study suggests that bats have indeed been the originator of SARS-CoV-2, after researchers found a novel coronavirus in the flying mammals that is “the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 reported to date.”.

"Notably, RmYN02 shares 93.3 [percent] nucleotide identity with SARS-CoV-2 at the scale of the complete virus genome and 97.2 [percent] identity in the 1ab gene, in which it is the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 reported to date," the researchers, who hail from a number of different universities and organizations in China and Australia, wrote in the study.

In April, the World Health Organization reaffirmed that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease, originated in bats and denied it was "manipulated or constructed" in a lab.

“All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed virus in a lab or somewhere else,” WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said in comments obtained by Fox News at the time.

Seven strains of coronavirus were also found in bats in Africa, according to a study published earlier this month.

©2020 FOX News Network, LLC

RECENT NEWS

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly updates and free resources.

CONNECT WITH US

© Copyright 2024 365NEWSX - All RIGHTS RESERVED