A type of coronavirus, NeoCov, that spreads among bats in South Africa may pose a threat to humans in future if it mutates further, according to a study by Chinese researchers.
The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study recently posted on the preprint repository BioRxiv, shows that NeoCov is closely related to the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), a viral disease first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause diseases ranging from the common cold to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Researchers from Chinese Academy of Sciences and Wuhan University noted that NeoCov is found in a population of bats in South Africa and to date spreads exclusively among these animals.
Meanwhile, India's daily Covid curve showed marginal improvement on Saturday as the country reported 2.35 lakh cases, which is around 6 per cent lower than Friday. As many as 871 people have died of Covid during the past 24-hour period, according to the Health Ministry.
The active now comprises 4.91 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.89 per cent.
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