New Delhi, Feb. 22 -- In a significant development, scientists at Wuhan Institute of Virology in China have discovered a new coronavirus in bats that can enter human's body using the same gateway as the virus that causes Covid-19.

This virus hasn't been detected in humans yet. It has only been identified in a laboratory.

According to a paper published on Tuesday in the journal Cell, the study, led by Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli, does raise the possibility that this new bat virus could spread from animals to humans.

"We report the discovery and isolation of a distinct lineage (lineage 2) of HKU5-CoV, which can utilise not only bat ACE2 but also human ACE2 and various mammalian ACE2 orthologs [- genes found in different species with a...