Juan Echevarría

Several media outlets are reporting cases of "camel flu" or MERS-CoV at the World Cup in Qatar, including three French national team players. However, no cases have been confirmed and the news reports speak of non-specific symptoms that could be due to any other infectious condition. This coronavirus, discovered in 2012, has a high case fatality rate and before the start of the competition, the WHO had already asked fans travelling to the country to watch out for possible symptoms.

A sarbecovirus distantly related to SARS-CoV-2 and found in horseshoe bats in Russia is able to enter human cells using the ACE2 receptor, according to research published in PLOS Pathogens.