A recent study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Wuhan University has revealed that a type of coronavirus -- NeoCov -- that spreads among bats in South Africa may pose a threat to humans in future if it mutates further.
The researchers also have warned that the new type of coronavirus has been stated to have a high death and transmission rate.
The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study, recently posted on the preprint repository BioRxiv, showed that NeoCov was closely related to the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), a viral disease first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
The scientist also noted that NeoCov was found among a population of bats in South Africa and to date spreads exclusively among these animals.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause diseases ranging from the common cold to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
