Wuhan Scientists Discover 23-Times Deadlier Coronavirus in Bats

Chinese scientists based in Wuhan have detected a new Coronavirus found in a population of bats in South Africa which could wreak more havoc than all previously known strains of the Coronavirus, including the one responsible for starting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Named NeoCov, the new Coronavirus is closely linked with MERS-COV, a Coronavirus that was first detected in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and causes a viral respiratory infection known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

MERS-COV belongs to the lineage C of Beta-COV, a family of Coronavirus which has a fatality rate of approximately 35%, which is 23 times higher than the fatality rate of COVID-19 which is 1.5%.

Although NeoCov is currently spreading among bats only, it could take one mutation for it to transmit among humans. In case it does, it could prove to be more contagious and potentially deadlier than all previous strains of Coronavirus combined.

Immunity generated by previous infection or vaccination of other Coronaviruses may also prove inadequate to protect against NeoCov as laboratory tests have shown that the new virus renders the antibodies produced by SARS-COV-2 and MERS-COV ineffective.

These are the findings of a recent study carried out by a group of scientists based in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province of China from where SARS-COV-2, the Coronavirus which causes COVID-19 infection, is believed to have originated. The study has not been peer-reviewed yet and is available at bioRxiv, an open-access preprint repository for biological sciences.

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