Scientists have discovered two new coronaviruses hidden in bats, raising fears the notorious disease isn't gone for good.
SARS-CoV-2 emerged in China in late 2019, spreading slowly at first before it exploded across the globe, triggering a years-long global pandemic that claimed millions of lives.
The world is still recovering from the hammer blow of the virus, but scientists in China have now discovered two new viruses of the same family.
CD35 and CD36 were discovered in samples taken from great roundleaf bats.
Scientists analysed results from 112 bats captured in caves in the Baoting County, Hainan Province, in southern China from March to April 2021.
Of the bats collected, samples from seven of them tested positive for various coronaviruses.
Both pathogens have the same mutation that is thought to have made Covid-19 so infectious.
Until SARS-CoV-2, no sarbecoviruses - the family Covid belongs to - had been discovered with a “furin cleavage site”.
But other coronaviruses do have the same site.
But researchers backed by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said the new discovery of two viruses with the quirk “deepens” understanding of coronavirus.
However the discovery has reignited the ongoing debate about the origins of the virus which caused the pandemic, as different sides compete to control the narrative.
Some argue the virus emerged from a Chinese lab - known as the lab leak theory - whilst others maintain the zoonotic virus was transferred from an animal to a human due to immensely close proximity.
The paper argued that the discovery “strongly” indicated that Covid did not come from a lab, but was “naturally originated”
But CD35 and CD36 are said to not be too closely related to Covid and currently have not been proven capable of infecting humans.
These were found to be a 54 per cent match to Covid.
Two experts disputed the claims of the research that it proved Covid was likely natural in origin - one was a known lab leak proponent - The Mail reported.
The study said: “Bat CoV CD35 is so far the closest relatives of SARS-CoV-2 with a polybasic furin-like site, strongly suggesting that the cleavage site is of natural origin, which provides clues to the evolutionary origin of the furin cleavage site of SARS-CoV-2.”
Due to the wide distribution of the bats studied, being found across southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Malaysia, CD35 and CD36 could be widespread.
