Human trials of an eagerly-awaited vaccine, developed by the Oxford University, against the novel coronavirus began in the UK on Thursday. Scientists have given the vaccine an 80 per cent chance of success.

The UK government has pledged 20 million pounds to support the coronavirus vaccine trial programme, with UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying the government would "throw everything at" finding a vaccine against the deadly virus.

The vaccine is made from a harmless chimpanzee virus that has been genetically engineered to carry part of the coronavirus to be tested on volunteers aged between 18 and 55 who are in good health.

The Oxford vaccine project is headed by Professor Sarah Gilbert and other immunity and human genetics scientists who started work on designing a coronavirus vaccine in January this year.