The new coronavirus, officially named Covid-19, is most closely related to a group of coronaviruses that typically infect bats. As it is winter in China and the bats are hibernating, some scientists believe that the virus passed from bats to another intermediate host. An intermediate host? You mean, another possible animal that passes on the coronavirus to humans from bats? So the “snake flu” group of scientists believe that bats transmitted the coronavirus to an intermediate host, snakes.

Source: The Star February 12, 2020 23:26 UTC