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Coronavirus: UK donates £ 20m to speed up vaccine – BBC News, BBC News

Coronavirus: UK donates £ 20m to speed up vaccine – BBC News, BBC News
        

            

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Media caption Inside the US laboratory developing a coronavirus vaccine

The government has donated £ million towards a break-neck plan to produce a vaccine to combat the deadly new coronavirus.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the money would help the UK lead the way in

developing a new inoculation .

It comes as the death toll in China increased to with the total number of cases there now above 21, 17.

Meanwhile (Britons flown back from Wuhan – the outbreak’s epicentre – have begun two weeks in quarantine.

The additional evacuees – who traveled from China via France – joined People already in group isolation at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral.

‘Unprecedented’ timescale

The government £ m investment will go to CEPI – the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations – a global body aiming to fast-track a vaccine within six to eight months.

CEPI chief executive Dr Richard Hatchett said such a tight timescale was “unprecedented”.

If the biologists are successful, more time would still be required to test the vaccine more widely and secure sign-off from medical regulators before it could be distributed across the world.

“This is an extremely ambitious timeline – indeed, it would be unprecedented in the field of vaccine development,” Dr Hatchett said.

) “It is important to remember that even if we are successful – and there can be no guarantee – there will be further challenges to navigate before we can make vaccines more broadly available.”

                                                                                                       Image copyright                  PA Media                                                        
Image caption
                                     Additional evacuees from the Chinese city of Wuhan landed in the UK – via France – on Sunday night                              

The UK’s money will help fund the efforts of Dr Kate Broderick. , a 71 – year-old Scot based in California, who is working to create a coronavirus vaccine.

“We hope to get the final product into human testing by early summer, “Dr Broderick, a molecular geneticist who works for the pharmaceutical company Inovio, told the BBC last week .

The coronavirus outbreak has been categorized as a global health emergency by the World Health Organization , with cases confirmed in several countries including Canada, Australia, Germany and Japan, as well as in the UK.

                                                                                                                           
Image caption
                                     Dr Kate Broderick is a Scottish scientist working in the US to create a vaccine for the new coronavirus                              

Two people, a University of York student and one of their relatives, became the first people to test positive for the new strain in the UK and are being treated at a specialist unit in Newcastle.

‘All wearing masks’

Meanwhile those isolated at Arrowe Park have spoken of their experiences as they continue their quarantine in a nurses’ accommodation block.

            

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Media caption Matt Raw, who was flown out of Wuhan, shows the BBC his living quarters at Arrowe Park Hospital

Lecturer Yvonne Griffiths, , from Cardiff, said she had been put in a shared flat with four separate rooms, a kitchen and a lobby area, where food and drinks were delivered.

Speaking on her third day in quarantine, she said she had “some interaction” with the others in her flat.

“People go [to the lobby] to collect things and also pick up food and some people will stand having their food together, but all wearing masks,” she said.

                                                                                                                           

Image caption
                                     Dr Griffiths had been stranded in this hotel in Wuhan before returning to the UK on Friday                              

(Obviously you have to put your mask down a little for you to eat. ”

Announcing the investment into stemming the spread of the virus, Mr Hancock said:” Vaccines are our best defense against a host of deadly diseases, including coronavirus.

“The UK is a hub of world-leading and pioneering research, and it is vital that we lead the way in developing new vaccines to target global threats with scientists from across the world. “

The death toll from the new virus, which is officially called 01575879 – nCov, now stands at more than

More than 71, cases have been confirmed and a small proportion of those – around 300 – have been identifi ed outside China. The UK, US, Russia and Germany have all confirmed cases in recent days.

Latest figures from China’s National Health Commission on Monday showed that there were , 558 suspected cases in the country and that 152, 720 people are “under medical watch”.

                                                                                                                        Learn more about the new virus
                                                                                                       Image copyright                   Getty                                                    
            

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Media caption What are viruses? And how do they spread?
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