COVID-19: UK intensifies effort on new vaccine

Health Secretary Matt Hancock today said he was ‘throwing everything at’ the attempt to develop the first vaccine in the world.

The Government will give the scientists an extra £20million to help with their project, Mr. Hancock said.

The vaccine, known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 will be trialed in conjunction with the University Hospital Southampton.

It is the first British-made vaccine to go into clinical trials and carries with it huge hopes that it will provide a key to getting out of lockdown and banishing COVID-19 from society.

The virus has now infected more than 125,000 people and killed 17,339 in the UK and the UK is on course to end up one of the worst-hit nations in the world.