DEPUTY chief medical officer Nicola Steedman has asked Scots to volunteer to help during the testing phase of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Appearing at the Scottish Government's coronavirus briefing, she gave an update on the possibility of a drug for the virus.
Last week, findings from the early phases of a vaccine being created by Oxford University were published, with Steedman saying the vaccine was both safe and created a "good response" in the more than 500 test subjects.
It was suggested that a vaccine could even be ready before Christmas – though it would be unlikely to be widely available
She added: "It's still early days, but it's definitely good news."
Steedman said: "Science and research has never been more important than it is now."
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Larger-scale trials will be required to ensure that vaccines can be rigorously tested in the coming months and Steedman has said a registry has been set up across the UK for people to sign up to be a part of Covid-19 trials.
Online sign-up can be found at www.nhs.uk/researchcontact, Steedman said, adding: "Please do visit the online site if you can and think about whether you, like so many others, can volunteer to help with vaccine trials."
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