Found in Animals, Spread to Humans
It is widely believed that the COVID-19 outbreak began in Wuhan, China late last year. Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization of the disease and it is still being combated today. Kristian Andersen, PhD, an associate professor of immunology and microbiology studying the outbreak has stated that the virus could have orginated out of 1 of 2 scenarios.
The first scenario is that the virus evolved to it's current state through a natural selection process in an animal host, and simply jumped to a human host when given the chance. Previous coronaviruses like MERS and SARS evolved similarly. While there have been no documented cases, it is most likely a bat coronavirus that has resulted in our current pandemic.
The second scenario has the virus jumping to Humans from an animal before beginning to evolve. Reaching it's current form while spreading through the human population.
Source: sciencedaily.com
