The United Kingdom is set to begin human trials of COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, says British Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Speaking at the Downing Street press briefing, Health Secretary – Matt Hancock said that the best way to defeat coronavirus is via developing its vaccine.
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“The U.K. is at the front of the global effort. We have put more money than any other country into a global search for a vaccine and, for all the efforts around the world, two of the leading vaccine developments are taking place here at home,” he noted.
According to details, £20 million will be provided for vaccine development to Oxford research team, which is scheduled to begin its human trials from Thursday.
British government has also allocated another £22.5 million to Imperial College London to support its COVID-19 vaccine research.
Mr Hancock went onto highlight the significance of vaccine development and said that the government is using every available resources and means to develop COVID-19 vaccine on wartime footing.
“In normal times, reaching this stage would take years and I’m very proud of the work taken so far. At the same time, we will invest in manufacturing capability so that if either of these vaccines safely work, we can make it available for the British people as soon as humanely possible,” he stated.
British National Health Service (NHS) has been struggling to meet its target of 100,000 COVID-19 tests per day due to continuous influx of patients.
United Kingdom has reported a total of 129,044 confirmed coronavirus cases with 17,337 deaths.
Countries around the world have been scrambling to develop a vaccine to tackle COVID-19 pandemic. The World Health Organization has said developing a safe vaccine will take at least 12 to 18 months, but scientists at Oxford say they expect to produce a million doses of an experimental vaccine as early as September. Researchers at the University of Bern – Switzerland, have said that their newly developed vaccine against COVID-19 could be by October this year. However, the Swiss pharmaceutical firm ‘Roche’ has said it’s unlikely a coronavirus vaccine will be available before the end of 2021.
