Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Thailand has researchers who have begun collecting samples from horseshoe bats to test them for coronavirus amid concerns that they may pose a threat to local residents. Researchers have planned to collect 300 bats, of 23 species it has in over three days from a cave in the Chanthaburi province in the southeast of the country. The bats will be released following the tests.
Researchers from the National Parks Department, Chulalongkorn Hospital and Kasetsart University entered the cave and came out with samples of bat blood, saliva and feces.
The source of the virus remains a matter of debate after it emerged in China late last year. There are reports from China that the COVID-19 virus is similar to the virus found in the horseshoe bat.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) in April said that all available evidence suggests that it originated in bats in China, but it was not clear how the virus had jumped the species barrier to humans.
Thailand was the first country outside China to record a case of the virus. It has so far reported 3,134 cases and 58 deaths.
Meanwhile the British drug maker AstraZeneca Plc said it signed a contract with Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands to supply Europe with a vaccine against the coronavirus, with deliveries starting by the end of 2020.
The contract is for up to 400 million doses of the vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, the company said, adding that it was looking to expand manufacturing of the vaccine, which it pledged to provide for no profit during the pandemic.
