China has put some varieties of the vaccine for the novel coronavirus into animal tests as researchers are making their utmost efforts to shorten the development time period, a senior official with the Ministry of Science and Technology said on Saturday.

Zhang Xinmin, head of the China National Center for Biotechnology Development with the ministry, said China strives to promote international cooperation in the vaccine development and domestic research teams are progressing basically in parallel with their foreign counterparts.

However, he stressed that it must be understood that as a product to be used by healthy people, safety should always be the priority for vaccine development, rather than the development speed.

"Researchers need to be given enough time to develop safe and effective vaccines because their research and development have to follow scientific rules and strict management standards," Zhang said at a news conference in Beijing.

He said the novel coronavirus is a new pathogen, so the research and development of a vaccine is complex and needs time. To speed up the process, China has formed joint research teams, and they are testing different varieties of vaccines to improve the success rate.