Clinical trials of a new potential coronavirus vaccine are set to begin in the UK, with 6,000 volunteers from across the country taking part.
The jab, developed by Janssen, part of Johnson & Johnson, is the third potential jab to enter clinical trials in the UK, joining US biotech company Novavax and Oxford University’s vaccine with AstraZeneca, whose trials are already underway.
On Monday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said all care home will be able to allow visits for Christmas as testing would be available across the country for the festive period.
Mr Hancock warned that people in care homes are “particularly vulnerable” to Covid-19 and admitted that rolling out testing for all care homes “will be a challenge”, but said he hoped to have it in place for every care home by Christmas.
In further news on testing, Department of Health and Social Care announced two new “mega labs” that will open early next year, which are set to more than double the UK’s daily Covid-19 testing capacity to up to 600,000 samples a day at full capacity.
