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CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019 (COVID-19) IS A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE CAUSED BY 
SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME CORONAVIRUS 2 (SARS-COV-2). THE
FIRST KNOWN CASE WAS IDENTIFIED IN WUHAN, CHINA, IN DECEMBER 2019. THE
DISEASE HAS SINCE SPREAD WORLDWIDE, LEADING TO AN ONGOING PANDEMIC .
THE EMERGENCE OF SARS-COV-2 MAY HAVE RESULTED FROM 
RECOMBINATION EVENTS BETWEEN A BAT SARS-LIKE CORONAVIRUS AND
A PANGOLIN CORONAVIRUS THROUGH CROSS-SPECIES TRANSMISSION.
THE EARLIEST AVAILABLE HUMAN VIRUS GENOMES WERE COLLECTED FROM PATIENTS
SINCE DECEMBER 2019, AND CHINESE RESEARCHERS COMPARED THESE EARLY GENOMES
WITH BAT AND PANGOLIN CORONAVIRUS STRAINS TO ESTIMATE THE ANCESTRAL HUMAN
CORONAVIRUS TYPE; THE IDENTIFIED ANCESTRAL GENOME TYPE WAS LABELED "S",
AND ITS DOMINANT DERIVED TYPE WAS LABELED "L" TO REFLECT THE MUTANT AMINO
ACID CHANGES. INDEPENDENTLY, WESTERN RESEARCHERS CARRIED OUT SIMILAR
ANALYSES BUT LABELED THE ANCESTRAL TYPE "A" AND THE DERIVED TYPE "B". THE B-
TYPE MUTATED INTO FURTHER TYPES INCLUDING INTO B.1, WHICH IS THE ANCESTOR OF
THE MAJOR GLOBAL VARIANTS OF CONCERN, LABELED IN 2021 BY THE WHO AS ALPHA,
BETA,
GAMMA,
DELTA
.