Scientists say they are close to finding a coronavirus vaccine

Scientists in London are close to developing a vaccine for the Covid-19 strain of coronavirus, they have said.

Trials have already successfully been completed in mice and could be ready for human trials by June.

The experiments are being led at Imperial College London by Mucosal Infection and Immunity head Dr Robin Shattock.

They have called for more funding and said a vaccine could be available next year.


Dr Paul McKay is working on an vaccine for the 2019-nCoV strain of the novel coronavirus (Picture: AFP)

Senior researcher Dr Paul McKay told the Daily Express: ‘I’ve got results from a month after I injected (the mice) and the vaccine works really, really well.’

The team are currently working with scientists in Paris to determine the vaccine’s effectiveness in monkeys.



Dr McKay said they have applied for further funding from the Medical Research Council in order to conduct human clinical trials.

He continued: ‘If we get the funding for the human clinical trials, we will put it into people by June.

‘If British scientists here develop a vaccine it would be great if the Government supported it.’

Europe has been deemed as the new epicentre of the outbreak (Picture: AFP)

Should the human trials be successful, the team says they are hopeful the vaccine will be available for patients in a year.

The developments come as the UK is poised to ban large public gatherings to contain the pandemic.

So far 11 people in the UK have died and the number of cases is now close to 800.

Next week, the government is expected to announce emergency measures that could include giving the police powers to detain those suspected of being infected and refusing to isolate.

Dr Paul McKay at work at Imperial College London (Picture: AFP)

Boris Johnson has come under criticism for not following other European countries and introducing tougher restrictions.

The World Health Organisation has said that Europe is now the epicentre of the pandemic.

Yesterday, the London Marathon was postponed until October while the Football Association announced the premier league will be suspended until April 4.

Next week’s Champions League and Europa League matches were also postponed as was the Wales v Scotland Six Nations rugby match. England’s cricket tour of Sri Lanka was also called off.

The local and mayoral elections in May have also been postponed for a year.

The London Marathon has been postponed due to coronavirus

Late on Friday a Whitehall source said: ‘Ministers are working with the chief scientific adviser and chief medical officer on our plan to stop various types of public event, including mass gatherings, beginning next week.

‘We are also talking to businesses and other bodies about the timing of moving towards much more widespread working from home.

‘There are many complex considerations to make all these measures as effective as possible.

‘We will make the right decisions at the right time based on the best scientific evidence.

‘We have drafted emergency legislation to give the government the powers it needs to deal with coronavirus, including powers to stop mass gatherings and compensate organisations.

‘We will publish this legislation next week.’