BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- China's military medical experts have wasted no time stepping up drug and vaccine research as well as virus source tracing to aid the country's battle against the novel coronavirus, a Defense Ministry spokesperson said Thursday.

Spokesperson Ren Guoqiang told a press conference in Beijing that a group of military experts was sent to Wuhan, the hardest-hit city by the coronavirus in central China's Hubei Province, on Jan. 26.

Four days later, they began coronavirus testing using independently-developed test kits in a mobile lab while continuing vaccine research.

On March 16, a recombinant novel coronavirus vaccine developed by a research team led by Chen Wei, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a researcher at the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences, passed a review by authorities and was greenlighted for clinical trials.

This marked a major breakthrough in the country's COVID-19 response, Ren noted.

The military experts will advance their research in strict accordance with international norms and domestic regulations to ensure the safety, effectiveness and quality of the vaccine, Ren said.