CGTN | Updated: 2021-03-03 10:37 Share CLOSE Strong evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 originated in horseshoe bats, but whether it passed directly from bats to people or through an intermediate host remains a mystery. [Photo/CGTN] It is the world's most pressing scientific puzzle. Pieces scattered around the world are being collected in search of a suspect in the largest health crisis to ever hit the globe in the past century. With the coronavirus outbreak first reported in Central China's Wuhan, followed by other reports elsewhere in world, scientists from around the world agree on SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, originated in bats.