Coronavirus vaccine hopes raised after scientists say they have made successful tests on mice

Scientists are hopeful they are on the verge of developing a vaccine for the covid-19 strain of coronavirus.

Researchers at Imperial College London say they have already successful tested the treatment on mice and may be able to start human trials by June.

However it would probably be a year before it was available for patients, the research team, led by Mucosal Infection and Immunity head Dr Robin Shattock, said.

Senior researcher Dr Paul McKay told the Daily Express: “I’ve got results from a month after I injected [the mice] and the vaccine works really, really well.”

The team are currently working with scientists in Paris to determine the vaccine’s effectiveness in monkeys.

Eleven people who have contracted covid-19 have died in the United Kingdom and globally the death toll has almost reached 5,000, according to the latest World Health Organisation figures.

Dr McKay said the team had applied for further funding from the Medical Research Council in order to conduct human clinical trials.

“If we get the funding for the human clinical trials, we will put it into people by June,” he said.

“If British scientists here develop a vaccine it would be great if the Government supported it.”

There have been more than 140,000 confirmed cases of covid-19 globally since the outbreak in China in December last year, with more than 72,000 people listed as having recovered.