COVID-19 research information for patients and the public

COVID-19 (sometimes called novel coronavirus) is a new illness that can affect your lungs and airways. It's caused by a virus called coronavirus. The UKRI website explains the science behind COVID-19. Corona Virus Disease 2019 is the name that scientists have given the disease.

To keep updated with the latest information, the UK Government has launched a GOV.UK Coronavirus Information service on WhatsApp. 

To use the free GOV.UK Coronavirus Information Service on WhatsApp, simply add 07860 064422 in your phone contacts and then message the word ‘hi’ in a WhatsApp message to get started. Read the Government information about the NHS Test and Trace App.

Over 100,000 UK participants have now enrolled in COVID-19 urgent public health research supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) - at NHS hospitals and care settings across the United Kingdom.

Taking part in COVID-19 research is vital to enable effective treatments to be identified, evidenced and made available to NHS patients as quickly as possible.

• Discovery of four COVID-19 risk groups will help guide treatment (10 September)
• New studies reinforce evidence that corticosteroids improve survival rates among critically ill COVID-19 patients (2 September)
• COVID-19 less deadly and causes milder symptoms in children (28 August)
• Unprecedented national effort by UK immunologists to search for answers on COVID-19 (25 August)
• New research finds better drug treatment for miscarriage as patients struggle to access surgery in COVID-19 pandemic (25 August)
  
• Over 100,000 volunteers now registered for COVID-19 vaccine trials (17 August)

For the latest news on the NIHRs response to the challenge of COVID-19, visit the NIHR COVID-19 webpage.