Health Secretary Matt Hancock held a press briefing on Tuesday to announce that the Oxford University team working on a COVID-19 vaccine will begin human trials from Thursday. Hancock also pledged to fund scientists working at Imperial College London.

The Government will give the scientists an extra £20 million to help with their trials, Mr Hancock said, and a further £22.5m to a project at Imperial College London. The Oxford vaccine, known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 will be trialed on up to 510 people out of a group of 1,112 aged 18 to 55. It is recruiting volunteers in London, Bristol, Oxford, and Southampton.

Mr Hancock said developing vaccines is an ‘uncertain science’ which usually takes years but that manufacturing capacity will be ramped up in case the jab is a success and is suitable to roll out to the public.

The trial will take six months and is limited to a small number of people so scientists can assess whether it is safe and effective without using huge amounts of resources – each patient must return for between four and 11 visits after the jab – and without the risk of large numbers of people being affected if something goes wrong.

Read more: About Oxford University will begin human trials for a coronavirus vaccine