Pangolins suspected as vector of coronavirus
• Parasitologists have suggested that pangolins spread the 2019-nCoV coronavirus to humans — although the research is yet to be published in full. Two researchers from the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou say that coronaviruses present in pangolins are genetically similar to 2019-nCoV. Scientists have already suggested that the virus originated in bats, then probably transmitted to humans through another animal.
• The death toll in China from 2019-nCoV has surpassed that from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). More than 900 people in China have died from the new virus. SARS, which also originated in China, killed 774 people worldwide in the 2002–03 epidemic.
