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Like other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 has spiky structure that helps it latch onto cells that it can invade.
The novel coronavirus which is believed to have originated in China's Wuhan city has brought the world to a near standstill. As of July 8, the virus has infected around 11,635,939 people and caused about 539,026 deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Understanding the animal hosts and transmission routes of the virus is important to prevent the spread of the disease as well as to find a solution to the pandemic. For identifying the zoonotic source of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO will be sending an expert team to China this weekend. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Tuesday that its experts will prepare scientific plans with their Chinese counterparts for identifying the source of the coronavirus.
During a routine press conference on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian confirmed that their government has agreed to the WHO's request to send experts to Beijing for coronavirus tracing. He also said that WHO experts will work with Chinese scientists and medical experts to draw the plan for virus tracing.
The WHO will conduct similar visits to other countries and regions if needed, Zhao said. As shown by the previous epidemics, virus tracing for new viral diseases is a very complex task and may require planning and implementing a series of scientific studies, he added.
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The novel coronavirus (also known as SARS-CoV-2) is widely believed to have originated from China's Wuhan seafood market in December 2019. In less than four months, the viral outbreak turned into a global pandemic spreading across the world. Coronaviruses are mainly zoonotic, meaning they jump from animals to humans. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world had seen two epidemics caused by viruses belonging to the family. They were called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).
After detailed investigations, researchers concluded that SARS-CoV transmitted to humans from civet cats, which got infected from bats. MERS-CoV is believed to be transmitted from camels to humans.
Like the other two previous coronaviruses, COVID-19 is believed to be transferred to humans from animals, but the exact source of it is not known yet. One popular belief is that the virus originated from an animal at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan. Many suggest that the COVID-19 virus came from bats from where it was passed to an intermediary animal before infecting humans. And Pangolin is implicated as an intermediary host between bats and humans. Pangolin is an illegally traded mammal prized their meat and claimed medicinal properties. But some researchers have ruled out pangolins as an intermediary host of COVID-19.
Earlier COVID-19 was thought to spread primarily through respiratory droplets released by an infected person when he/she coughs, sneezes, or talks. Now, emerging evidence suggests that the SARS-Cov-2 virus may be airborne and can be spread by tiny particles suspended in the air. The WHO also admitted on Tuesday that airborne transmission for the virus cannot be ruled out.
Like other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 has a spiky structure that helps it latch onto cells that it can invade. It can enter the human body through the eyes, mouth, or nose. Once the virus finds a compatible receptor or protein, it invades the human cells and starts replicating itself.
The presence of the virus can be detected through swab samples collected from the nose or mouth. Researchers are also using blood samples to identify the antibodies produced by the body's immune system against the virus.