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A team of Canadian researchers from Ontario has isolated and grown copies of the coronavirus, the agent responsible for the outbreak of COVID-19 that has spread worldwide.

The isolated virus will help researchers in Canada and across the world develop better diagnostic testing, treatments and vaccines, and to gain a fuller understanding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

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At the same time, Quebec City biopharmaceutical company Medicago announced it has produced a virus-like particle of the coronavirus that may be able to produce a vaccine against COVID-19.

To date, the virus has infected more than 125,000 people in 118 countries and caused over 4,600 deaths in what the World Health Organization has declared a pandemic. Canada has registered 152 confirmed cases and one death.

Scientists from the Sunnybrook Research Centre, McMaster University and the University of Toronto cultured the virus from two clinical specimens in a Level 3 containment facility, Sunnybrook announced Thursday.