TORONTO - Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg has a sample of the new coronavirus that is causing infections in a number of countries, most notably Saudi Arabia.

Scientific director Dr. Frank Plummer says the lab obtained the virus from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The Dutch lab was the one that first identified the new virus last June in a sample from a Saudi man who had died of a mysterious illness.

Plummer says the coronavirus arrived at the Winnipeg facility on May 4.

He says the lab is growing up stocks of the virus and will use it to assess diagnostic tests being used in Canada.

As well Winnipeg scientists plan to do some work to see which animal species can be infected with the new virus.

That research will be done in conjunction with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's national lab, the National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases. The animal lab is housed in the same complex as the National Microbiology Laboratory.

The Winnipeg lab made diagnostic tests months ago, based on genetic sequence data of the new virus. Those tests have been in the hands of provincial labs since last fall, Plummer says.

To date about a handful of people have been tested for the infection in Canada, but all the tests have come back negative.

But having the actual virus to work with will allow the Winnipeg scientists to start developing a blood test to look for past infection with the virus, Plummer says.

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Canada's national lab has new sample of coronavirus, planning studies