Oxford coronavirus vaccine will not be ready until October under 'best case scenario'

CORONAVIRUS vaccine researchers in Oxford have said it won't be ready until October.

The shock announcement has dashed hopes that it will be out by September.

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Hope still hangs on the current human coronavirus vaccine trials continuing to be successful and drugs company AstraZeneca being able to produce 30 million units fast enough.

Director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, Professor Adrian Hill has today said that the "best scenario" would see results from clinical trials in August and September and deliveries from October.

The delay could create havoc if Britain sees a second peak during the winter flu season without a vaccine.

Prof Hill told colleagues at the Spanish Society of Rheumatology: "This vaccine has shown very good results in trials with chimpanzees, and has already moved on to the next phase of human trials.

"One of its advantages at the beginning was to demonstrate in previous tests that similar inoculations, including one last year against a previous coronavirus, were harmless to humans."

There are ongoing doubts about how long the vaccine would last.

It is believed that the virus could mutate in time for winter meaning that we would need to take a jab every year like we do with flu.

Last month, Business Secretary Alok Sharma announced an extra £84 million research funding boost and said that Britain would be the first country in the world to get a vaccine should trials be successful.

The Oxford vaccine is currently the furthest along in human trials of all the vaccines in development.

Lead researcher, Professor Sara Gilbert has predicted that it could be ready by early autumn.

However, the trials had to be moved abroad to places like Brazil recently as Britain got our R rate so low that it messed with the potential results of the human trials.

Prof Gilbert said at the time: "We are focusing on vaccinating healthcare workers, as they have the highest rates of virus infections.

"Further, as measures to ease the lockdown are being introduced, transmission may rise again."

The UK's first Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Harwell, Oxfordshire, will be operational by next summer.

It will be able to produce enough vaccines for the whole population within six months according to the Telegraph.

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