New study to deliberately re-expose volunteers to Covid-19 launched in he UK

The study, which is funded by the Wellcome Trust and is expected to start this month after receiving ethics approval, will recruit people aged 18-30 who have previously been naturally infected with Covid-19.

The participants will be quarantined for 17 days under and cared for by the research team at a hospital until they are no longer at risk of infecting others. Picture: Danny Lawson/PA

Healthy, young volunteers who have previously had Covid-19 will be deliberately exposed to the virus for a second time to see how the immune system reacts as part of a new UK study.

Researchers at the University of Oxford have launched what is known as a “human challenge” trial to look at what happens when someone who has recovered from Covid-19 infection is then re-exposed to the virus.