
[ Photharam, THAILAND ] Researchers from the Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases Health Science Center, catch bats as they stream out of Khao Chong Pran Cave to feed, during a catch and release program in Photharam, Ratchaburi Province, Thailand, on December 11, 2020. The team, led by Dr Supaporn Wacharapluesadee of Chulalongkorn University, consisting of scientists, ecologists, and officers from Thailand’s National Park Department, have been collecting blood, tissue, saliva and fecal samples from bats in an effort to understand the origins of the Covid-19 virus. Dr Supaporn and her team have been studying coronaviruses for over a decade, and researchers at Chulalongkorn University were the first in the world to detect a COVID-19 case outside of China, by modifying tests for coronaviruses they had developed over the years.