AP photo.
BEIJING: The novel coronavirus that has claimed over 350 lives and infected thousands in China may have originated from bats, according to two latest studies published in the journal Nature on Monday.
In the first study, the researchers carried out a genome sequence of the virus associated with the respiratory disease outbreak in China, isolated from a patient working in the seafood market linked to the initial cases.
The study found that the virus was closely related to a group of SARS-like coronaviruses previously identified in bats in China.
The coronavirus outbreak, which originated in the central Hubei province of China in December, has killed 361 with 57 deaths reported on Sunday while the number of confirmed cases has climbed to 17,205. The Philippines on Sunday reported the first death outside China from the epidemic that has spread to 25 countries, including India, the US, the UK and Russia.
In China, all the deaths have been reported in Hubei Province – the epicentre of the virus outbreak. The virus was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on January 31.
The first patient was admitted to a hospital on December 12 last year, and investigations have identified a seaf