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 researchers said they had found a batch of new coronaviruses in bats. Expert says, one more cover up to save both US-Chinese scientists.
According to the Chinese researchers, one of the viruses was very similar, genetically to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that’s causing the ongoing pandemic. “It would be the closest strain to SARS-CoV-2 except for genetic differences on the spike protein, the knob-like structure that the virus uses when attaching to cells,” they said.
“Together with the SARS-CoV-2 related virus collected from Thailand in June 2020, these results clearly demonstrate that viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 continue to circulate in bat populations, and in some regions might occur at a relatively high frequency,” they wrote.
The discovery of 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 origins study. Recently, the calls to investigate further the origins of COVID-19 have intensified.
