Croatian researchers in Zagreb's Fran Mihaljevic Hospital for Infectious Diseases have managed to develop the coronavirus in laboratory conditions, and this breakthrough is seen as an important step closer to finding a COVID-19 vaccine.

“We have developed the virus in laboratory conditions using a positive test of a patient diagnosed with SARS-COV-2,” researcher Zeljka Macak-Safranko told the RTL broadcaster on Saturday evening.

Experiments with laboratory-developed viruses are the first steps to developing vaccines and to other research efforts and projects.

Biologist Ivan Christian-Kurolt, one of the researchers in the project of the Zagreb hospital, explained that the development of the virus in laboratory conditions helped scientists to observe transmission behaviour and rate of dissemination of this novel virus.

Macak Safranko said that the researchers had been engaged in obtaining an isolate from culture round the clock for a week. The results of the project were sent to Germany.

The Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in the city of Brunswick has to date received such isolates from Germany, Austria and northern Italy, apart from Croatia.

The Zagreb’s hospital head, Alemka Markotic, told the RTL, that the fact that Croatian researchers had managed to obtain a coronavirus isolate was a great success for the clinic and for Croatia.