Britons are being urged to take part in a trial for a potential coronavirus vaccine and could be paid up to £625 for their time.

Imperial College London and University Hospital Southampton has asked people to take part in some of the first human tests to discover whether a potential inoculation is effective in tackling the deadly disease.

Yesterday Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that one Covid-19 vaccine developed at the University of Oxford will be trialled on humans in the UK from tomorrow.

Imperial said tests for its separate vaccine will take place in the weeks ahead and anyone who is healthy and aged between 18 and 55 can take part at Imperial College London, University Hospital Southampton or Bristol Children’s Vaccine Centre.

Those who take part in the trial at these centres could be paid up to £190 to £625 reimbursement for their time.

Speaking during the daily No 10 press briefing yesterday, Mr Hancock said the government was ‘throwing everything’ at developing a vaccine in the UK.

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The Government will give scientists in Oxford an extra £20 million to help with their trials, he added, and a further £22.5 million to the project run by Imperial College London.

Despite development of a new vaccine normally being around 18 months, researchers at Oxford believe large-scale production could be under way as early as September – only nine months after the virus came to light in Wuhan, China.

The Oxford vaccine – known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 – will be trialled on 510 people out of a group of 1,112 aged 18 to 55. It is recruiting volunteers in London, Bristol and Southampton. The Oxford Vaccine Centre is taking part but is not currently recruiting volunteers.

It is the first British-made vaccine to go into real-world trials. Researchers hope a vaccine could be the key to controlling Covid-19 and taking the country out of lockdown sooner.

Imperial Medicine tweeted its own call for volunteers, and said: ‘The Imperial College NHS Trust are looking for healthy volunteers to participate in a #COVID19 #vaccine trial, for which they will receive up to £190-£625 reimbursement for time, travel and contribution to the trial.’

The trial will take six months and is limited to a small number of people so scientists can assess whether it is safe and effective without using huge amounts of resources as each patient must return for between four and 11 visits after the jab.

The health secretary insisted the UK has put ‘more money than any other country into the global search for a vaccine’.

Speaking at Downing Street, he said: ‘In the long run the best way to defeat coronavirus is through a vaccine. After all, this is a new disease,’ he added.

‘This is uncertain science but I’m certain that we will throw everything we’ve got at developing a vaccine’.

He said coronavirus was a ‘powerful enemy’ but that ‘the power of human ingenuity is stronger’ and every day scientists are discovering more about the virus.

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