Researchers have identified a new coronavirus that is closely related to SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. The discovery provides fresh evidence that SARS-CoV-2 evolved naturally and was not produced in a lab.
The new virus is not likely to infect humans. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, rumors have circulated that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, the city in China where the outbreak began.
This theory was recently given credence by United States President Donald Trump, who claimed to have evidence that SARS-CoV-2 originated in a Chinese laboratory.