Is another pandemic on cards? A Chinese team has found a new bat coronavirus that carries the risk of animal-to-human transmission because it uses the same human receptor as the virus that causes Covid-19. The virus, named HKU5-CoV-2, was found to use the same human receptor as SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19. Images of hospitals overrun with masked patients have circulated widely on social media, but health experts say HMPV is not like Covid, and point out it has been around for many years. They say China and other countries are simply experiencing the seasonal increase in HMPV typically seen in winter. What is the newly discovered virus HKU5-CoV-2? While there is still no consensus on the origin of the virus, some studies suggest it originated in bats and jumped to humans through an intermediate animal host. Shi has denied that the institute was to blame for the outbreak, the report said. The latest discovery is a new lineage of the HKU5 coronavirus first identified in the Japanese pipistrelle bat in Hong Kong. The new virus comes from the merbecovirus subgenus, which also includes the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers). The research found that HKU5-CoV-2 can bind to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE2) receptor, the same receptor used by SARS-CoV-2 to infect human cells. "We report the discovery and isolation of a distinct lineage (lineage 2) of HKU5-CoV, which can utilise not only bat ACE2 but also human ACE2 and various mammalian ACE2 orthologs," the scientists wrote.