The UK has approved a first-of-its-kind Coronavirus (COVID-19) study that will expose young and healthy volunteers to Covid-19 as part of efforts to further understand the virus, the government has announced.

Due to begin in the next few weeks, the study will recruit up to 90 carefully-selected participants aged between 18 and 30 – who are at the lowest risk of complications from coronavirus – and expose them to the pathogen in a safe and controlled environment.

After exposure, the volunteers will be closely monitored by medics and scientists for 24 hours a day throughout the study. They will be kept in quarantine for a minimum of 17 days and only allowed to return home after this period once they are no longer deemed infectious.

It’s hoped the research will help doctors to further understand how the immune system reacts to Sars-CoV-2, identify factors that influence how the virus is transmitted and aid the development of treatments and vaccines.

Known as a Human Challenge study, the first phase of research aims to establish the smallest amount of virus needed to cause infection. Scientists expect this take up to two months.

This article was originally published by Samuel Lovett for the Independent (UK) on February 17, 2021:
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