China discovers new bat coronavirus capable of infecting humans

By our Special Correspondent

Chinese researchers have found a new bat coronavirus, HKU5-CoV-2, which has the potential to infect humans as it uses the same cell-surface protein to infiltrate cells as the SARS-CoV-2 virus that caused Covid-19.

The study on the new virus, published in the Cell scientific journal, was carried out by leading Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli, who is also known as the “batwoman”, as a result of her extensive research on bat coronaviruses, at the Guangzhou Laboratory.