A team of researchers catch bats as they fly out of the Khao Chong Pran Cave at dusk.
A team of researchers consisting of scientists, ecologists, and officers from Thailand's National Park Department have been conducting bat sampling collection missions throughout Thailand's countryside in an effort to understand the origins of COVID-19. Led by Dr. Supaporn Wacharapluesadee, whose team at the Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases-Health Science Center at Chulalongkorn University was the first to analyze and confirm a COVID-19 case outside of China, has led the research in Thailand on tracing the virus.