Climate bat role

CLIMATE change may have played a direct role in the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, a study has suggested.

Global greenhouse gas emissions over the last century have made southern China a “hotspot” for many bat species that host coronaviruses, according to scientists from the University of Cambridge.

The researchers said their findings about species “taking their viruses with them”, published in Science of the Total Environment journal, should be “an urgent wake-up call”.

THE UK’S R rate for coronavirus has fallen to between 0.7 and 1.0, and the level of new infections is also shrinking by between 2% and 5% every day, latest data shows.