Oxford Uni to begin human trials for new coronavirus vaccine this week

Tests are due to begin on Thursday


A new vaccine for COVID-19 created at Oxford University is set to be trialled on humans from Thursday this week.

In a statement today, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was “throwing everything at” the plan to develop the world’s first vaccine.

The vaccine, named ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, will be trialled in collaboration with the University of Southampton, and the Government will be giving an additional £20 million to help the project.

Image credit: Professor Tom Solomon at Liverpool University

The vaccine will be the first British-made one to make it to clinical trials, and hopes are high it will lead to an end to the nationwide lockdown.

17,339 so far have died from the virus, according to recent figures. 125,000 have been infected, meaning the UK is on track to become of the worst hit countries in the world.

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Featured image via Pexels