Get paid to have #coronavirus: Scientists in London will pay volunteers £3,500

Volunteers could be paid £3,500 to be infected with the coronavirus as scientists race to find a vaccine.

The Queen Mary BioEnterprises Innovation Centre, London, is recruiting 24 people for the study.

They will be injected with two weaker strains of the deadly virus – which has killed more than 3,800 people worldwide – giving them similar respiratory symptoms.

A jab developed by the company Hvivo will then be tested. Patients will remain in quarantine for two weeks to see if it is successful.

Some 35 other vaccines are in development, and the UK government has promised an extra £46million in the fight against coronavirus.

However, experts have said a vaccine is unlikely to be approved in time to halt the current epidemic, which has so far seen more than 110,00 people across the globe fall ill with COVID-19.