Chinese officials say a coronavirus strain in an outbreak of the virus in Beijing may have come from Europe

Chinese officials have released genome data for the coronavirus traced to a recent cluster in Beijing, saying they noted similarities to a European strain.

China has shared the data with the world health organisation amid pressure to make the findings public.

This comes after Beijing reported nearly 200 fresh Covid-19 infections after months.

But scientists are cautious overdrawing early conclusion about the link.

Ben cowling, a professor at the University of Hong Kong’s school of public health, says that it is possible that the virus now causing an outbreak in Beijing travelled from Wuhan to Europe and now back to china

But he added that patient zero hadn’t been identified yet and that it may be too late to find out how the latest cluster started.