The University of Oxford announced on Friday that it will include children and the elderly among the more than 10,000 volunteers it began to recruit for the second phase of human clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine.

The age range of the people to whom the test vaccine will be administered is thus broadened with respect to the first phase, to include groups of 56-69 years, people over 70, and between 5 and 12 years of age. , announced the center.

"The researchers will evaluate the immune response to the vaccine in people of different ages, to find out if there is a variation in the response of the immune system in older people or children," he said in a statement.

The world-renowned university, , started the first phase of clinical trials in April, with healthy volunteers between 18 and 55 years old, in which more than 1,000 vaccines were administered and whose monitoring is ongoing.

"Clinical trials are progressing very well," said Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford vaccine group.

"We are now initiating studies to assess how well the vaccine induces immune responses in older people, and to test whether it can provide protection for the general population," he added.

However, Pollard told BBC radio that "it is not possible to predict" when the potential vaccine could be ready.

"It is very difficult to know exactly when we will have proof that it works," he said.

The university and the British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca signed an agreement that, if confirmed the efficacy of the vaccine, could allow manufacturing between 30 million and 100 million doses in the United Kingdom by September.

Given the urgency of finding a vaccine against covid-19, Oxford chose to accelerate a process that normally takes at least a year and a half, starting each phase of trials without waiting for the end of the previous one.