LONDON 22 Apr (ANA) - Britons are being urged to take part in a trial for a potential coronavirus vaccine and could be paid up to £625 for their time.

Imperial College London and University Hospital Southampton has asked people to take part in some of the first human tests to discover whether a potential inoculation is effective in tackling the deadly disease.

Yesterday Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that one Covid-19 vaccine developed at the University of Oxford will be trialled on humans in the UK from tomorrow. Imperial said tests for its separate vaccine will take place in the weeks ahead and anyone who is healthy and aged between 18 and 55 can take part at Imperial College London, University Hospital Southampton or Bristol Children’s Vaccine Centre. 

University of Oxford)Those who take part in the trial at these centres could be paid up to £190 to £625 reimbursement for their time.

Speaking during the daily No 10 press briefing yesterday, Mr Hancock said the government was ‘throwing everything’ at developing a vaccine in the UK. For all the latest news and updates on Coronavirus, click here.For our Coronavirus live blog click here. The Government will give scientists in Oxford an extra £20 million to help with their trials, he added, and a further £22.5 million to the project run by Imperial College London. Despite development of a new vaccine normally being around 18 months, researchers at Oxford believe large-scale production could be under way as early as September – only nine months after the virus came to light in Wuhan, China.

The Oxford vaccine – known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 – will be trialled on 510 people out of a group of 1,112 aged 18 to 55. It is recruiting volunteers in London, Bristol and Southampton. The Oxford Vaccine Centre is taking part but is not currently recruiting volunteers.(ANA)

FA/ANA/22 April 2020-----