Wuhan coronavirus close to strand in bats

A coronavirus known to live in bats is the closest strain of the 2019-nCoV virus that first appeared in China's Wuhan region and has since spread to other parts of Asia, with cases reported in Europe, Australia and North America, a study by Greek scientists at Athens University and the University of Crete has revealed.

Scientists who studied the genetic characteristics of the new virus, which has killed 132 people in China and infected thousands of others, have ruled out the possibility of it having come from reptiles and concluded that it is a new coronavirus and not the product of a combination with another virus from the same family.

As Sotiris Tsiodras, associate professor of internal medicine and infectious diseases at Athens University Medical School, explained to Kathimerini, "the basic conclusions of the study are that the new virus has similar characteristics...