An investigation has found four new types of coronavirus in bats in China, 16 months after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in the country.
The investigation, carried out by virologist Edward Holmes, analysed samples from around 400 bats in Yunnan province, 1.8 kilometres from Wuhan, where COVID-19 was first detected.
From this research, four new types of coronavirus closely related to COVID-19 were discovered, plus three other variants closely related to COVID-19.
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“Species of wild animals have a great number of viruses and it’s possible for one to emerge and cause an epidemic or a pandemic in humans,” Holmes said at a press conference.
“This isn’t something that only happens every 100 years.”