A team of researchers have released the first pictures, which show what they call 'the real appearance' of the novel coronavirus.

The images were captured in a lab in southern China after experts had used frozen electron microscope analysis technology to inactivate a strain of the virus.

'[The technology] preserves the biological specimen or the virus to show its state of being when it was alive. It is the most authentic result.

'The appearance of the virus that we see is exactly the same as what it would be in nature,' said associated professor Liu Chuang, a member of the team.

Experts captured the images after using frozen electron microscope analysis technology to inactivate a strain of the virus. The pictures were released by Shenzhen Third Hospital

The team, based in southern China's Shenzhen, also captured an important intermediate state in the host cell when it was being infected by the virus. The discovers can lay an important foundation for the identification, analysis and relevant clinical research, the team said

The team also captured an important intermediate state in the host cell when it was being infected by the virus.

The breakthrough was jointly achieved by researchers from the Shenzhen National Clinical Medical Research Center for Infectious Diseases and Southern University of Science and Technology.

It can lay an important foundation for the identification, analysis and relevant clinical research, the team said.

Liu Lei, Party Secretary of Shenzhen Third Hospital, told Pear Video: 'This finding will help the development of drugs and vaccines against the coronavirus.

Zhang Zheng, Director of the research institute at the Shenzhen Third Hospital, said: 'It took us over a month. Some other places had also successfully separated [the strain of the virus].

'But the special thing about our work is that we have not only separated [the strain], but also seen how it really looks like under the frozen microscope.'

Liu Chuang, Associated Professor from Frozen Microscopy Centre at Southern University of Science and Technology, said: '[The images] have a scientific significance for us to understand the life cycle of the virus.'

Liu Chuang (pictured), from Southern University of Science and Technology, said: '[The images] have a scientific significance for us to understand the life cycle of the virus'

The team said researchers isolated a virus strain from a patient on January 27 and 'rapidly' completed the genome sequencing and identification.

They named the strain 'BetaCoV/Shenzhen/SZTH-003/2020'.

Their study was published online in pre-print journal bioRxiv yesterday.

The news comes as Chinese officials said that some vaccines for the novel coronavirus could be in clinical use next month as the number of global coronavirus cases soared past 100,000.

Globally, at least 3,451 people have died and more than 101,400 have contracted the infection

Coronaviruses are so named because their structure has jagged edges which look like a royal crown - corona is crown in Latin (Pictured, an illustration of the COVID-19 virus released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Professor Huang Jinhai from Tianjin University said he and his team had developed an oral vaccine and were looking for partners. The picture shows medics working in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital designated for COVID-19 patients in Wuhan on February 24

A spokesperson from the National Health Commission claimed that the country's scientists were striving to develop immunisation products with five technologies simultaneously.

'We estimate that in April - in line with country's relevant law and regulations – there is hope that some of the vaccines can enter the stage of clinical or emergency use,' said Zheng Zhongwei, director of the Technical Development and Research Centre of China's National Health Commission.

Mr Zheng added: 'The novel coronavirus is a new virus. We need a process to explore and understand it.

'The same applies to the development of vaccines. We need to solve problems gradually as we continue to explore and deepen [the research].'

Mr Zheng made the comments at a press conference today held by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council of China.

China's National Health Commission expects the first vaccines to be in 'clinical or emergency use' next month. The picture shows China's President Xi learning about the progress on the vaccine development at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing on March 2

Scientists in China and around the world are striving to create the first vaccine for the coronavirus. In the picture taken on October 18, scientists are seen working in a laboratory of Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. The organisation is researching a vaccine for novel coronavirus

The new coronavirus outbreak has now infected more than 100,000 people worldwide.

Slovakia, Serbia and Peru today became the latest countries to confirm cases of the killer infection.

The global toll surged into six figures, with South Korea, Iran and Italy all recording huge spikes amid fears the escalating crisis will only continue to worsen.

At least 3,400 people have already died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus – meaning roughly 3.4 per cent of known cases die.

Inside China, the epidemic has killed at least 3,042 people and infected more than 80,500.