Coronavirus: United Kingdom launches new test with …

the UK has started a clinical trial to strengthen the immunization of the population against the advance of the Indian variant of the coronavirus. The study, conducted by the University Hospital of Southampton and funded by the government with 19.3 million pounds ($ 27 million), will involve thousands of volunteers who will be vaccinated. with a third booster dose.

The investigation test seven vaccines to provide data on the impact of a third inoculation on immune responses. The United Kingdom is the European country most affected by the pandemic, with nearly 128,000 deaths, and on Wednesday recorded 2,967 cases of the variant known as B1.617.2, initially detected in India.

The number of infections with the Indian strain was a third more than those recorded last Monday, according to the Minister of Health, Matt Hancock. The head of the health portfolio called for vaccination given that “this variant is more transmissible” than the strain detected in the UK in December and which has caused a skyrocketing number of cases in the country and four months of containment .

Hancock attributed the spread of the identified variant in India to the large Asian community living in the country and the reluctance of some people to get vaccinated. In this context, 2,886 volunteers will receive a third booster dose in 16 centers across England and their antibodies will be tested at 28, 84, 308 and 365 days to measure their immune responses.

Unlike the second wave that hit the island, the situation is different as 70 percent of adults (37 million people in a country of 66 million people) received a first dose of a vaccine and 40 percent two need it. A first dose should have been offered to all adults by the end of July.

“We are convinced that the vaccines are effective against the Indian variant,” said Hancock, despite the clinical trial launched today, adding: “Our strategy is the right one, carefully replacing the restrictions on our freedoms with the protection offered by vaccines.”. The UK began a slow break up weeks ago.