The three Rhinolophus species that have so far been shown to be carriers of coronaviruses linked to SARS-CoV-2 cannot be found in Singapore. - AFP
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Horseshoe bats carrying coronaviruses very similar to the one that causes Covid-19 have been found outside China, so the pandemic may not necessarily have originated in the country, say scientists in a new study.
It is likely that the virus arrived at the Chinese city of Wuhan from elsewhere, said Professor Wang Linfa from the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore and one of the study's co-authors.
The study, published on Tuesday (Feb 9) in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, had found a coronavirus in the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus acuminatus in Thailand that was 91.5 per cent similar to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.