BEIJING, January 26. /TASS/. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has started developing a vaccine against coronavirus of the new type 2019-nCoV that causes pneumonia, China Daily has reported.

"Research and development of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, which has caused a wider outbreak in China, is under way," the paper writes, citing Xu Wenbo, head of the center's viral disease control and prevention institute.

"Scientists from the center have successfully isolated the virus, and are working to select the proper strain for vaccine production," the report said.

According to the latest data, more than 2,000 people have been diagnosed with pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus, and the death toll has reached 56. More than 30 novel coronavirus cases have also been reported in Australia, Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, the United States, Thailand, France and Japan.

The Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) on December 31, 2019 about the outbreak of pneumonia of unknown origin in central China’s Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center with a population of over 11 million people. The pathogen, the 2019-nCoV coronavirus, was identified on January 7. The WHO has recognized the virus outbreak as a national emergency for China but has so far refrained from declaring it a global health emergency.