Researchers in Hong Kong say they have developed a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus, but it could take some time before it’s used on humans.

According to the South China Morning Post, Professor Yuen Kwokyung, from Hong Kong University, revealed his team had developed the vaccine after the city had at least eight confirmed cases.

So far, 132 people have died from coronavirus and more than 5,900 others have been infected.

Yuen says it could take months to test the vaccine on animals before clinical trials on humans would be allowed.

He says if the vaccine appears effective and safe in a number of animal species, it will go into clinical trials on humans adding this takes at least one year even if expedited.

Mainland China also claimed a vaccine was in the works and that it could be made available earlier, but Yuen was doubtful saying it’s likely the one being developed by the mainland will be an inactivated virus vaccine.

Meanwhile, Australian scientists have managed to replicate the coronavirus in laboratory conditions in a medical breakthrough that could help speed up the development of a vaccine to combat the deadly virus.

Researchers at Melbourne’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity have become the first to recreate the virus outside of China, the ABC reported on Wednesday.

[Source:7News]