UK to fund study on 3rd dose of Covid-19 vaccine

London, March 4 (IANS) The British government will fund what it believes to be the world's first study assessing the effectiveness of a third dose of vaccine to combat Covid-19, the UK Budget revealed on Wednesday.

The government is committing 22 million pounds ($30.70 million) to studies that test the effectiveness of a combination of different Covid-19 vaccines. This will also fund the world's first study assessing the effectiveness of a third dose of vaccine to improve the response against current and future variants of Covid-19, according to the Budget.

It said 28 million pounds ($39.07 million) will be invested to increase the country's capacity for vaccine testing, support for clinical trials and improve its ability to rapidly acquire samples of new variants of Covid-19, the Xinhua news reported.

The Budget said there will be an extra 1.65 billion pounds ($2.30 billion) of cash injection to ensure the Covid-19 vaccination rollout in England continues to be a success.

Britain started its Covid-19 vaccination program in December, and over 20 million people had received at least the first dose of a vaccine by the end of February.