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SHANGHAI — Scientists in China studying the coronavirus outbreak said they had found two main types of the disease could be causing infections.

The researchers, from Peking University’s School of Life Sciences and the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cautioned that their analysis examined a limited range of data, and said follow-up studies of larger data sets are needed to better understand the virus’s evolution.

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The preliminary study found that a more aggressive type of the new coronavirus associated with the disease outbreak in Wuhan accounted for about 70% of analyzed strains, while 30% was linked to a less aggressive type.

The prevalence of the more aggressive virus decreased after early January 2020, they said.

“These findings strongly support an urgent need for further immediate, comprehensive studies that combine genomic data, epidemiological data, and chart records of the clinical symptoms of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19),” they wrote.