Pangolins can be intermediate hosts for new pneumonia, scientists at South China Agricultural University and Guangdong Modern Agriculture Laboratory said.
According to experts, they came to this conclusion after an appropriate “breakthrough” study. Experts studied more than a thousand samples of the metagenome, carried out molecular biological recognition and found that the positivity coefficient of Betacoronavirus in pangolins reached 70 percent.
Next, scientists isolated the strain of the animal virus and found that the genome sequence of the isolated strain is 99 percent the same as the person who infects the person.
However, it is possible that there may be several intermediate hosts of the virus, according to the China Daily.
China first detected the novel strain of coronavirus in Wuhan in late December. It has since spread within China and to more than 20 countries, with 638 confirmed deaths worldwide and over 31,000 infected.
Last week, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency in light of the outbreak.
