2019-nCoV genome 96.2% similar to a bat coronavirus

On January 23, 2020 – A team led by Shi Zheng-Li, from Wuhan Institute of Virology, reported on bioRxiv that they ” found that nCoV-2019 is 96% identical at the whole genome level to a bat coronavirus” which shows the coronavirus has a potential bat origin.  They also said it had 79.5% similarity to SARS-CoV, the coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Reported in the paper they “found a short RdRp region from a bat coronavirus termed BatCoV RaTG13 which [was] previously detected in Rhinolophus affinis from Yunnan Province showed high sequence identity to nCoV-2019.”

An article in Science magazine a week later, states that it still “remains a mystery which animal spread the virus to humans.”