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Fifteen years ago, scientists discovered a cave in southern China that held viruses almost identical to the one that has killed nearly 500 people today and the ones that caused the SARS and MERS outbreaks decades ago.

The cave, whose exact location is being kept secret, is inhabited by wild bats that have been found to carry a “rich gene pool of SARS-related coronaviruses,” saidPeter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S. nonprofit organization that monitors wildlife diseases that could pose a pandemic risk.

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Daszak said that one of the 500 or so virus strains discovered in 2004 is 96 per cent similar to the novel coronavirus that has infected 28,000 people and killed 560 since the outbreak began in December.

“What we’re saying is that this cluster of viruses is a high risk,” Daszak said.

The cave was discovered as part of the team’s efforts to track viruses similar to SARS in 2003, after the epidemic had struck, Daszak explained. At the time, people believed civets had caused the outbreak, but Daszak’s team disputed that notion.