Is NeoCov Coronavirus Dangerous for Humans? Read What WHO Has to Say

WHO said that the source of 75 per cent of infectious diseases in humans are wild animals.

New Delhi: Following the warning issued by Chinese scientists about a new variant of coronavirus—NeoCov, currently circulating in South Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday said it is aware of the development, but a further study of the virus is needed to ascertain if it poses a risk to humans.

“Whether the virus detected in the study will pose a risk for humans will require further study,” Russian news agency TASS quoted the global health agency as saying. As per the report, the WHO said that the source of 75 per cent of infectious diseases in humans are wild animals.

“Coronaviruses are often found in animals, including in bats which have been identified as a natural reservoir of many of these viruses,” said the health agency.

The agency added that it “works closely” with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN Environment Program (UNEP) in order to “monitor and respond to the threat of emerging zoonotic viruses”, and thanked the researchers in Wuhan “for sharing their findings in a preprint.”

Earlier today, scientists in Wuhan had warned of a new variant of coronavirus—NeoCov, currently circulating in South Africa. The new strain reportedly related to the Middle East respiratory syndrome MERS-COV. According to a report by the Russian news agency Sputnik, NeoCoV which was first found in bats in South Africa have a high death and transmission rate.

Sputnik, however, claimed that NeoCov is not new as in 2012 and 2015, it was discovered in outbreaks in Middle Eastern countries. Carrying the potentially combined high mortality rate of MERS-CoV (where one in three infected people die on average) and the high transmission rate of the current SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, NeoCoV can not be cured by antibodies nor protein molecules produced by people with respiratory diseases.

Following the findings, experts from the Russian State Virology and Biotechnology Research Center issued a statement and said that the potential risks outlined needed to be studied and probed further.