A staff member checks the quality of nucleic acid extraction kits at Chengdu Bio-Base Technologies Co., Ltd. in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan, Feb. 10, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Kun)

Chinese researchers said Thursday they had isolated a novel coronavirus strain from swab sample of an infected patient's feces.

The swab sample was provided by the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, said Dr. Zhao Jincun from the State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Medical University, at a press conference Thursday.

According to Zhao, the discovery confirmed that the patients’ feces contained the live virus, though it still lacks sufficient evidence for the existence of fecal-oral transmission.