Health secretary Matt Hancock has said that human trials for a coronavirus vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, will begin on Thursday this week.
Speaking at the UK daily coronavirus briefing from Downing Street on Tuesday, Hancock said that the government was “throwing everything” at developing a working vaccine.
The health secretary said that the development process would be “trial and error”, but declared that the UK was at the “front of the global effort” to defeat coronavirus having invested more money than any other country.
The vaccine development at the University of Oxford and another leading development group at Imperial College London will receive a combined total of £42.5 million in funding.
Hancock said: "Both of these promising projects are making rapid progress and I've told the scientists leading them we will do everything in our power to support.
"After all, the upside of being the first country in the world to develop a successful vaccine is so huge that I am throwing everything at it."
Meanwhile, Hancock was defensive over criticism of the government for the lack of personal protective equipment [PPE] accessible for front-line healthcare workers, including from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer who said there was a “gap” between government promises and the reality of the situation.
Sir Keir told the BBC: "It would be a struggle for any government to get exactly the right kit to the right place at the right time. But what we're seeing here is an increasing gap between what the government says or thinks is happening and what the front-line are telling us.
"This gap has to be closed as soon as possible because people are putting their lives literally on the line when they're going to work - they need the proper equipment in the right place."
Sir Keir is expected to demand answers from the government over the PPE shortage at Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions session in Parliament, which will be operating virtually for the first time.
However, Hancock said at Tuesday's briefing that the government was “investigating each lead” from any UK companies who have offered to support but added that not all of those who had come forward had the capacity to “deliver on scale”.
Hancock called the mission to provide front-line workers with enough vital equipment as the “biggest cross-government operation” he had ever witnessed, confirming that the government was working with 159 different manufacturers in the UK after over 8,000 firms came forward offering support.
The UK is also in “direct talks” with companies abroad, including in China, to purchase equipment, while an RAF plane has arrived in the UK three days later than scheduled carrying PPE provided by Turkey. The supplies will only be sufficient to last a day,however, according to The Telegraph.
The total UK death toll from Covid-19 had reached 17,337 as of the time Tuesday’s briefing took place. Official figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the figure of total deaths of any cause in England and Wales reached a 20-year peak in the week up to April 10.
