MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/: The Russian Health Ministry’s Center for Strategic Planning and Management of Medical and Biological Health Risks will complete next month its work on developing a snap test for detecting new coronavirus 2019-nCoV that has caused the outbreak of pneumonia in China, Deputy Health Minister Oleg Salagai said on Tuesday.
"In February, the Center for Strategic Planning and Management of Medical and Biological Health Risks will finish its work on creating a snap test for detecting a new coronavirus, which has been widely discussed in mass media. This is a good example of strategy aimed at supporting priority scientific research that the ministry is using," Salagai said in his Telegram channel.
The deputy health minister recalled that Russia had created a domestic vaccine against Ebola virus. This was the world’s first officially registered vaccine of this level.
On December 31, the Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization about the outbreak of a new type of pneumonia in the city of Wuhan in central China. On January 7, Chinese specialists determined the virus behind the infection - coronavirus 2019-nCoV. All suspected cases of new pneumonia were tested for the coronavirus.
According to latest reports, 224 people were infected with the new coronavirus in China's Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai and the Guandong province. Isolated cases were also confirmed in South Korea, Thailand and Japan.
On January 20, China's National Health Commission confirmed that coronavirus 2019-nCoV can be transmitted people-to-people.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will convene an emergency committee meeting on Wednesday to discuss the coronavirus outbreak in China.
