THE UK prime minister Boris Johnson on Friday (6) announced a new £46 million package, including funding for urgent work to find a coronavirus vaccine and develop a rapid test for the disease.
The additional support will bring the UK’s investment into COVID-19 vaccine research to £65 million.
Boris Johnson said: "We are ensuring the country is prepared for the current outbreak, guided by the science at every stage. But we also need to invest now in researching the vaccines that could help prevent future outbreaks".
Out of the new funding, up to £20 million is for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to support vaccine development.
This is in addition to the £30 million commitment that the UK has already made to CEPI, bringing the UK’s total commitment to £50 million.
Eight possible coronavirus vaccines are currently under development and efforts are being made to get any viable vaccines from sequencing of the virus to clinical testing in under a year - a record timeframe, the UK government said.
The prime minister visited Mologic lab in Bedfordshire on Friday which is using UK aid funding to develop rapid diagnostic test devices for coronavirus to allow medical professionals or potentially even individuals at home to identify the disease quickly without relying on specialist facilities.
As of Friday, 20,338 people have been tested in the UK, of which 20,175 were confirmed negative and 163 were confirmed as positive. One patient who tested positive for COVID-19 has died.
Zohran Kwame Mamdani with his parents, Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani , and his wife, Rama Duwaji
Mamdani's supporters celebrate his nomination