NNK team successfully isolates virus, says chief medical officer

Researchers at the national security lab of Hungary's National Centre for Public Health (NNK) have become the first in the country to successfully isolate the new coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 disease, the chief medical officer said on Tuesday. The breakthrough will allow scientists to begin developing a vaccine against the virus and to test various therapies, Cecilia Muller told a press conference after a meeting of the operative board coordinating the epidemic response. The team that isolated the virus was led by virologist Zoltan Kiss, she said, adding that it would provide live and non-live samples of the virus to both Hungarian and foreign researchers.