Shen Yongyi and Xiao Lihua at the South China Agricultural University, Yang Ruiyu at the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, Chen Wu at the Guangzhou Zoo Research Department and colleagues have shared data via GISAID from a pangolin-associated SARS-like coronavirus. 1/4 
This virus pangolin/Guangdong/1/2020 groups closely with pangolin/Guangdong/P2S/2019 released yesterday by researchers at the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology and the University of Hong Kong, differing only by ~60 bp and each 93% identical to #COVID19. 2/4
It seems possible that both research groups may have been working from the same animals seized in Guangdong. Thanks to open data sharing by both groups it's possible to connect these two stories. 3/4
As before, the proximity of these pangolin-associated SARS-like coronaviruses makes pangolins a plausible intermediate host for #COVID19, but this is not yet definitive. See nextstrain.org/groups/blab/sa… for a whole genome phylogeny. 4/4
