THE details of the human challenge trial which will see volunteers deliberately exposed to Covid have been revealed.

Those who take part in the trial will be paid around £4,500 to participate in the study which will involve 17 days of quarantine and follow-ups over 12 months.

The trial, which is trying to determine if the Covid virus grows in the nose, is not designed to induce symptoms in volunteers.

But it has been said that as soon as people start to shed virus from their nose, they will be given remdesivir as a pre-emptive treatment.

This afternoon, Professor Sir Terence Stephenson, chairman of the Health Research Authority, said: “People are rewarded for being in those studies, or compensated.

“The sum is about £4,500 but that covers the initial stay and follow-up.”

He added: “The initial stay involves quite an imposition on a young person – 17 days in quarantine and you cannot be visited by any member of your family or friend or relative.

“For the first £1,500 for 17 days we’ve got something like £88 a day, which I don’t think anyone would sense was a ridiculous coercion or inducement.”

SEE MORE: Why this County Durham lad is to be deliberately infected with Covid

Confirming the purpose of the trials, Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, said: “It’s important to emphasise that the aim of the initial studies are not to produce any great severity of disease.

“Indeed, if we can just demonstrate that the virus grows in the nose, that’s really the endpoint we’re looking for.

“We’re not aiming to make any of the subjects sick and we’re doing that by very slowly escalating the dose.”

This follows on from this morning's news that a Durham graduate is set to volunteer to be deliberately exposed to coronavirus.

Jacob Hopkins, from Durham, will be a prospective volunteer for a Covid-19 human challenge trial— a vaccine study planned by Imperial College London and the Vaccine Taskforce.

Mr Hopkins said: “I’m 23 years old, fit, healthy, and at a relatively low risk of suffering serious effects from Covid-19. In fact, the risk of death from Covid-19 for volunteers like myself is less than 1 in 10,000 — three times lower than if I were to donate a kidney."

Robert Read, head of clinical and experimental sciences within medicine at the University of Southampton and director of the NIHR Southampton biomedical research centre, told a press briefing that volunteers will receive the lowest possible dose.

He said: “The study has been designed so it’s the lowest possible dose to establish detectable virus turnover in the nose and throat, it’s not designed with symptoms as an endpoint to maximise safety that’s going to be a viral logical endpoint.”