In follow-up studies of ‘batwoman’ Shi, a handful of people test positive for antibodies for a SARS-related coronavirus less than 300 kilometers away. None of them could remember having been ill recently. They did all report bats around their house from time to time.
In the following years, hundreds of coronaviruses were found in two nearby caves. The find turned out to be a breakthrough and is believed to be the most likely explanation for the source of the SARS virus, which later spread to humans via civets.
People there now say they never see bats again. “It used to be”, says the manager of a tobacco shop. At least one of the two caves has since been closed, says the man who guards a checkpoint near the Yanzi Cave.
Strangers stop us when we want to talk to local residents around the cave. “You can’t, because of the epidemic,” shouts one of the dozen men who appear shortly afterwards. Several support cars then no longer lose sight of us, until we disappear through the toll gate on the highway.
Samples submitted
There have been few or no cases of corona in the region, residents in Tongguan, of which the mine shaft is part, say. The entire province of Yunnan, which has a population of 48 million, reported only 231 corona reports, according to official government figures.
That the mine is a sensitive site, AP news agency previously reported. A research team that recently succeeded in taking samples in the mine shaft should have handed them in. All scientific research into the origin of the virus must first be approved by the Beijing authorities before publication, according to documents in the hands of the news agency. In a note to the Chinese RIVM, employees were ordered not to share data with external parties.
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