Race on to find virus vaccine
UK TOLL 2 DEATHS 164 CASES
SCIENTISTS are in a race against time to develop a coronavirus vaccine – but it will not be ready for a year, experts warned yesterday.
The urgency was highlighted as Prime Minister Boris Johnson committed £46million for research development and diagnostic tests.
Britain saw its biggest single daily leap in numbers of cases and a second suspected death yesterday, but there is still no treatment available to protect people against the killer disease.
The number of cases in the UK now stands at 164 after 20,338 people were tested for infections.
And yesterday’s worrying increase in cases saw experts warning numbers would start to rocket.
As of last night coronavirus had infected 101,883 people globally and killed more than 3,462.
However, it emerged that human trials of eight possible vaccines could start later this year.
Experts are predicting an Easter peak, with the virus so virulent it could return again later in the year.
Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, said: “A vaccine that can be used generally, we’d be very lucky to get one within a year.”
Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “I think we will go to the peak of the epidemic somewhere around Easter. If it goes down in April or May, it could come back again in November.
“We have no vaccine. All we have is medieval ways of containment – isolation, quarantine, contact tracing.
But it’s really important not to give up and say, ‘Let everybody get infected and get it over with.’
“That would lead to massive demand on the NHS.
“And let’s not forget that older people and people with chronic conditions are quite vulnerable.We need to protect them.
“I’m often asked whether the threat is being overhyped. The answer, to me, is no.This is the real thing.”
Prof Piot added it made sense to plough resources into making a vaccine.
He said: “I don’t think a vaccine will have any impact on the current outbreak – it will be too late.”
Mr Johnson announced the new research funding during a tour of a Bedfordshire laboratory. Experts there are working on a quick and cheap way to diagnose Covid-19.
Efforts to step up the fight against the deadly disease came as tests were being carried out last night on an elderly man who died at Milton Keynes Hospital.
It had been believed that the man was 88 and tested positive for coronavirus.
It is understood he had recently returned from a Caribbean cruise
and had visited several countries. His death came a day after a woman in her 70s, who had caught the virus, died in the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.
Last month, a Briton died from coronavirus after being infected on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Japan.
There have been 147 confirmed cases in England, 11 in Scotland, four in Northern Ireland and two in Wales. Among those struck down were a child at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool and two British Airways baggage handlers who work at Heathrow Airport.
Sports authorities have been summoned by the Government for discussions on coronavirus contingency plans.
Football’s Premier League is even considering banning over-70s at matches. And some fixtures could even be played behind closed doors, it was claimed.
Meanwhile, increasing numbers of people across the country are choosing to wear protective face masks as panic grows.
Italy is facing the biggest outbreak in Europe, with more than 4,636 confirmed cases and 197 deaths, the highest number outside of mainland China.