As of the most recent reports from the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been over 130,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and a total of 3,584 deaths as a result of the global outbreak.
This weekend in northern Italy, 16,000,000 people have been quarantined in an effort to slow down the infection rates after confirmed cases jumped by 25%, the BBC reports. As per the Guardian, people will only be able to leave the areas for emergency reasons or they face fines and up to three months in jail for breaking the quarantine rules.
With cases continuing to increase, the race is on to find a vaccination for the SARS-like disease, and now a laboratory in London believe they've got the solution.
According to The Times, willing participants are being offered £3,500 ($4,600) to be infected with a form of the COVID-19 virus, in a desperate bid to find a vaccine. Volunteers will have to take two weeks off work and will be forbidden from making physical contain with the outside world.
Hvivo (stylized as hVIVO), a company that operates a quarantine unit in an east London laboratory, is one of more than 20 firms and public sector organizations currently participating in the worldwide effort to develop a vaccine.
Per reports, the company is looking for up to 24 willing participants at a time. Each volunteer will also be banned from physical exercise and will be placed on a strict diet.
The Daily Star states that the volunteers will be infected with two common - but far less serious - strains of the virus.
The strains, known as 0C43 and 229E, are thought to cause mild respiratory symptoms and are believed to be much less severe than the coronavirus that is currently causing panic around the world.
Despite being different strains, The Mirror reports that researchers believe a vaccine can be developed from this testing.
The publication also reports that any nurses or doctors who work on this particular study will be forced to wear ventilators and protective clothes while they are working in the lab or handling any material that could be infected with the virus - such as used tissues or blood tests.
But before you ask your bosses for two weeks off work (or will this count as sick leave?), the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency must first agree on Hvivo's plans before any testing can take place.
