A laboratory in Australia is the first outside of China to grow the Wuhan coronavirus from a patient sample, which officials said "will provide expert international laboratories with crucial information to help combat the virus."
Dr. Julian Druce, the head of the Virus Identification Laboratory at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, said in a statement that "this was a significant breakthrough as it will allow accurate investigation and diagnosis of the virus globally.”
“Chinese officials released the genome sequence of this novel coronavirus, which is helpful for diagnosis, however, having the real virus means we now have the ability to actually validate and verify all test methods, and compare their sensitivities and specificities — it will be a game changer for diagnosis,” Druce said in the statement.