According to a report by the Russian news agency Sputnik, scientists from Wuhan, China, where the Covid-19 virus was initially found in 2019, have warned of a new strain of coronavirus known as ‘NeoCov’ in South Africa, which has a high death and transmission rate.
According to the report, the new NeoCov virus subtype is not new.It was detected in outbreaks in Middle Eastern countries between 2012 and 2015, and it is comparable to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes coronavirus in humans.
While NeoCoV was discovered in a bat population in South Africa and has only been known to spread among these animals, a new study published as a preprint on the bioRxiv website discovered that NeoCoV and its close relative PDF-2180-CoV can infect humans.
Only one mutation is required for the virus to penetrate human cells, according to researchers from Wuhan University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Biophysics.
The novel coronavirus offers a threat, according to the findings, since it attaches to the ACE2 receptor differently than the coronavirus pathogen. As a result, NeoCoV is not protected by antibodies or protein molecules produced by patients with respiratory disorders or who have been immunised.
According to Chinese experts, NeoCoV has the potential to combine the high mortality rate of MERS-high CoV (one out of every three infected people dies) with the rapid transmission rate of the existing SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
According to the report, scientists from the Russian State Virology and Biotechnology Research Center published a statement on Thursday following a briefing on NeoCoV.
