The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) has succeeded in isolating and culturing the novel coronavirus strain collected from cases related to the Xinfadi market in Beijing, CCTV reported on Thursday.

China CDC has received two batches of respiratory tract specimens collected from the market on June 11 and 13 and started the isolation and culture immediately.

The virus strain was successfully isolated and cultured on Monday, which is of great help for researchers to understand sequence and replication characteristics of the strain, and vaccine evaluation and drug screening of COVID-19.

(Cover image via VCG)