Close relatives of the coronavirus may have been in bats for decades
Similar viruses with the potential to infect humans could be circulating in the mammals
![horseshoe bat](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/072820_eg_bat-covid_feat.jpg?fit=1028%2C579&ssl=1)
Coronaviruses closely related to the one that causes COVID-19 may have been around for longer than anyone realized. SARS-CoV-2’s closest known relative is a virus isolated from an intermediate horseshoe bat (one shown) in Yunnan Province in China in 2013.
B.G Thomson/Science Source