Scientists have found five viruses with the potential to infect people, one of which is a Covid-like virus that has been hiding out in bats in southern China.

The virus, called BtSY2, is at great risk for the emergence and is closely related to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID.

COVID-Like Virus Detected

Researchers from the University of Sydney, the Yunnan Institute of Endemic Disease Control, and Sun Yat-sen University in Shenzhen served as the project’s primary investigators. It was described in a recent study that was released on the bioRxiv server as a preprint publication that has not yet undergone peer review.

A novel recombinant SARS-like coronavirus that is closely linked to both SARS-CoV-2 and 50 SARS-CoV is among the five viral species that the team says are likely to be harmful to humans or cattle. A novel recombinant SARS-like coronavirus that is closely linked to both SARS-CoV-2 and 50 SARS-CoV is among the five viral species that the team says are likely to be harmful to humans or cattle.

In six counties or cities in China’s Yunnan province, the researchers collected rectum samples from 149 individual bats representing 15 species for the study.

RNA, a form of nucleic acid present in living cells, was extracted from each individual bat and sequenced separately.

According to Professor Jonathan Ball, a virologist at the University of Nottingham, this can result in existing viruses trading pieces of their genetic code to create new diseases.

READ MORE: How Believing That Covid-19 Is A Hoax Could Be A Gateway Drug To New Conspiracies

Five more viruses were also found by scientists

According to one specialist, the findings raise the possibility of a fresh wave of “fatal” illnesses.

Millions of Britons have had the COVID-19 vaccine or have some other form of protection from earlier infection, and the virus has been spreading for more than two years. Many people throughout the world are figuring out how to live with the bug because the present Omicron strain is milder than others.

However, this latest discovery adds to a growing body of research showing that arboviruses, which are coronaviruses, are widespread throughout Asia and eastern Europe. A different study that was published this year found that a bat had another virus that was similar to Covid.

A team from the World Health Organization is currently looking into the virus’s unclear origins, which are known as Khosta-2 (WHO).

READ MORE: The rise in COVID infections suggests that China may have “reached the point of no return.”