Thousands of people will get a coronavirus 'booster' shot in a new trial announced by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
The 'Cov-Boost' study, led by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, will trial seven vaccines in the hope that a a third shot will help fight a winter surge of Covid-19.
The Health Secretary said initial results of the trial are expected in September - reports Mirror Online.
Speaking at a Downing Street briefing Mr Hancock said: “We will do everything we can to future-proof this country from pandemics and other threats to our health security, and the data from this world-first clinical trial will help shape the plans for our booster programme later this year.
“I urge everyone who has had both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and is eligible, to sign up for this study and play a part in protecting the most vulnerable people in this country and around the world for months and years to come.”
The trial will look at seven different COVID-19 vaccines as potential boosters, given at least 10 to 12 weeks after a second dose as part of the ongoing vaccination programme.
One booster will be provided to each volunteer and could be a different brand to the one they were originally vaccinated with.
The initial findings will help the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) decide on plans for a booster programme from autumn this year.
The study will take place at 16 National Institute for Health Research-supported sites across England, and also within Health and Care Research Wales and NHS Research Scotland sites.
It will include a total of 2,886 patients and participants are to begin being vaccinated from early June.
The 18 sites include Southampton, London, Leicester, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Wrexham, Bradford, Oxford, Glasgow, Leeds, Cambridge, Birmingham, Brighton, Stockport, Liverpool and Exeter.
Among the information gathered will be any data on side-effects, including among people whose third booster jab is a different type to that used for their first two shots.
Professor Saul Faust, director of the National Institute for Health Research Southampton clinical research facility and lead investigator for the trial, said the "hope of a booster is that we raise the antibody level enough to be able to cover existing and variant strains of coronavirus."
He added: "We're hoping the immune responses will be high enough to protect people against all the strains circulating in the UK, including we'll be testing in the lab against the Indian variant, the South African variant, the Kent variant as well as the original strain."
Experts believe booster shots of existing vaccines could be enough to provide protection against all variants, with some scientists suggesting that developing new vaccines against variant strains may actually impair people's immune responses.
