Scientists at Vietnam’s National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) have successfully isolated and grown the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the laboratory from a patient’s sample, which could significantly speed up the testing of new cases.

NIHE announced the information on Friday morning.

The isolated virus, which was grown in a cell culture, is helpful for developing quick tests capable of processing up to thousands of samples each day, as well as for producing trial vaccines, according to the Ministry of Health.

On the same day, the health ministry also revealed that a group of Vietnamese scientists are working on a diagnostic kit that will reduce 2019-nCov testing time to two hours.

It currently takes laboratories in Vietnam about 4- 9.5 hours to test for the virus from patients’ samples, according to the Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long.

China currently reports the world’s fastest 2019-nCoV testing time at about two hours.

The new diagnostic kit will also allow more medical facilities to perform diagnosis, as it will not require much researching background, experience or equipment to be carried out.

Currently, samples of suspected 2019-nCoV patients in Vietnam must be sent to only a handful of selected medical institutions for testing, which slows diagnoses.

Around 1,500 cases in Vietnam are still waiting for test results, including 1,000 people returning from China and another 500 quarantined for having close contact with infected patients and high-risk individuals, according to the Vietnam Government Portal.

The novel coronavirus, which first surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has killed 638 people and infected more than 31,400 globally as of Friday morning, according to the South China Morning Post.

It has since spread across mainland China and to 31 other countries and regions, according to a Reuters tally based on official statements from the various health ministries around the globe.

Vietnam has so far confirmed twelve cases of the virus, including nine Vietnamese, one Vietnamese American, and two Chinese.

Among them, one Chinese and two Vietnamese had fully recovered and been discharged from the hospital as of Thursday. They were all treated for free.

The World Health Organization has declared the new coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern.

The WHO said on Thursday it was too early to say that China's coronavirus outbreak was peaking, but noted that Wednesday was the first day that the overall number of new cases in China had dropped.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!