Images of the exact moment that the coronavirus infects a cell have been captured by scientists at Latin America’s largest medical research center.

The photographs were taken while experts at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Brazil studied the replication of the virus, known as Sars-CoV-2.

Using a transmission electron microscope, a high tech piece of kit which can magnify objects up to two million times, the team captured in detail the process of how a coronavirus infects cells.

The images show a series of dark points that are actually viral particles of the pathogen.

In the first picture (above), these particles are attempting to infect and enter the cytoplasm of the cell - inside which is the cell nucleus that contains its genetic material.

In another image Sars-Cov-2 is beginning the process of infection: