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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.

On Saturday, Health Ministry officials briefed top cabinet members, including the home, foreign, defense and civil aviation secretaries, about the screening and other preventative measures being undertaken as more countries report 2019-nCoV infections.

While nobody in India has tested positive for the new coronavirus yet, authorities routinely take samples from all travelers who show any respiratory disease symptoms. Over 20,000 passengers on 115 flights at seven international airports across India have been screened in recent days.

In addition to thermal scanners set up earlier, several multidisciplinary teams comprising public health experts, clinicians and microbiologists were sent to airports in New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi on Sunday. According to Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, screening measures have also been increased at the border with Nepal, which reported the first coronavirus case on Friday.

The Health Ministry also issued a fresh advisory for travelers going to or returning from China, urging them to avoid close contacts and promptly seek medical attention, and report to the Indian Embassy, if they feel sick and have symptoms like fever and cough.

In a bizarre attack, masked protesters have thrown Molotov cocktails into the lobby of a building that the Hong Kong authorities were planning to use to quarantine people in need of testing for the deadly coronavirus.

© Reuters / Tyrone Siu
Hong Kong protesters set alight the building that authorities planned to use as a quarantine facility.

As of Sunday, a total of eight people in Hong Kong had been diagnosed with the disease originating from the mainland China city of Wuhan, with three more patients added to the list. Hong Kong has declared a state of emergency over the outbreak and rolled out measures to prevent the spread of the infection.

One of these was meant to reserve a newly-built empty public housing building in the Fanling area as a backup quarantine area for people who may have contacted infected patients but don't show symptoms themselves.

But the decision has sparked protests from some local residents fearful that the building would pose a public health threat. On Sunday, some seemed to have taken their fears to another level, by using firebombs.

In the wake of the incident the Hong Kong health authorities said the plan to use the building was suspended. Several other sites in more isolated locations have been set aside for the same purpose.

The firebombing incident highlights how the tactics embraced by violent anti-Beijing protesters in Hong Kong has become common in the city. Amid the coronavirus outbreak the city authorities have come under increased pressure, with a medical staff union demanding the closure Hong Kong's border, threatening to go on strike otherwise.

The city is also working on providing isolated temporary housing to medics working with infected patients and who want to live separately from their families until the threat is dealt with.

The clip from the show resurfaced and went viral after Chinese scientists discovered that the new rapidly-spreading coronavirus, which has already killed 56 people in the country, is nearly identical to the coronavirus found in bats, a delicacy in some part of China.

Many commenters on social media deemed Wang's video unsettling and accused her of spreading a dangerous message by encouraging others to consume bats. "Every Chinese ppl think it's disgusting," one person wrote of Twitter.

The blogger promptly apologized, saying that she was "just trying to introduce the life of local people" to the viewers.

"I didn't know that bat is a primary reservoir of viruses ... I really did not check the information or explain its dangerous nature," she wrote, promising not to eat wild animals ever again. After the backlash, the video has been taken down from the channel.

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