CrackitToday App

NeoCov: Important Points

NeoCov:

NeoCoV is a bat coronavirus that was first identified in 2011.

  • It was identified in a species of bats known as Neoromicia, which is where the name NeoCoV was derived from.
  • Commonly known as aloe bats, this species is distributed in the Afro-Malagasy region. NeoCoV shares an 85% similarity to MERS-CoV in the genome sequence, making it the closest known relative of MERS-CoV
  • Scientists in China have warned about a new strain of coronavirus, NeoCov, related to the Middle East respiratory syndrome MERS-coronavirus.
  • NeoCoV carries with it 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.