British health secretary Matt Hancock has called for more volunteers to take part in ‘essential’ clinical trials on the coronavirus.
He also ordered the public to stay at home during the warm weather over the weekend after warning that UK deaths from Covid-19 could reach a peak of 1,000 per day by Easter Sunday
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Sky News reports: After the UK’s top health experts wrote a letter urging clinicians to enrol patients, Health Secretary Matt Hancock used the daily news briefing on the outbreak to call for more volunteers as he paid tribute to frontline NHS staff.
He said that research on treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, was “essential to our plan” to tackle the epidemic and said the UK was carrying out world-leading trials.
We have established three national clinical trials covering each major stage of the disease – primary care, hospital care and critical care for the most seriously ill,” he said.
“These trials are looking at the effectiveness of existing drugs and steroids, re-purposed for treatment for COVID-19.
“One of the trials, which is called recovery and deals in hospital care, is the largest of its kind in the world, with 926 patients involved.”
He added that the “bigger the trials, the better the data and the faster we can roll out the treatments”.
Mr Hancock was leading the briefing for the second day running following his recovery from COVID-19.
He also said the UK must not “relax our discipline” now with social distancing or non-essential travel ahead of good weather forecast for this weekend – warning that “people will die” if people don’t stick to the lockdown measures.
“This is not advise, these are instructions,” he added.
Niamh Harris