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MOSCOW, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Russian scientists will have a SNAP test within a month to quickly detect the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that caused cases of pneumonia, Russian newspaper Izvestia reported Monday.

"We started work on creating reagents on Jan. 14, immediately after placing the genome of the new pneumonia virus in the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) international database," Izvestia quoted German Shipulin, deputy director of the Strategic Planning Center of the Russian Ministry of Health, as saying.

"By the end of January, we will have a prototype of the laboratory technique for the diagnosis of 2019-nCoV," Shipulin said.

According to the newspaper, scientists believe that the novel coronavirus was transmitted to humans by bats, but has not yet adapted to humans.

If that happens, the virus will begin to spread rapidly, it said.

Doctors have not found specific remedies for the new coronavirus yet, it said.