In a major breakthrough, a probe into tracing the origins of Covid-19 led to the Chinese researchers find a batch of new coronaviruses in bats.
"The newly found viruses in the bats include one that may be the second-closest yet (genetically) to the COVID-19 virus", CNN reported.
The researchers in the report stated their discoveries were made in southwestern China that showed how many coronaviruses are there in bats and have the potential to spread to people.
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, ANI reported
The researchers say that they tested urine and feces as well as taking swabs from the bats' mouths, it added.
"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 the new coronaviruses in the mammal emerged at a time when scientists, citizens, researchers, and medical professional have called to investigate the origins of the virus.
