OREANDA-NEWS. Chinese scientists have concluded that a pangolin (a mammal living in Asia and Africa) can be intermediate host of the new 2019-nCoV coronavirus. This was reported on February 7 by the CGTN channel with reference to the study of a group of researchers of the South China Agricultural University.

By isolating the strain of the animal virus, scientists found out that the genome sequence of such a strain is 99 % identical to that which infects humans. They have not specified whether coronavirus can be transmitted to humans from pangolins.

At the same time, Dirk Pfeiffer, Professor at Hong Kong’s City University, warned that the study was still a long way from proving pangolins had transmitted the virus.