SCIENTISTS urgently need to recruit 600 people from across Warrington who have suffered from COVID-19 to volunteer for a unique study looking at why some people have been extremely ill while others had few or no symptoms.
For the past 12 months, a group of NHS doctors and scientists from across the UK involved in the GenOMICC COVID-19 Study have been trying to find out why some people who had Covid became extremely ill and needed hospitalisation while others experienced fewer or no symptoms.
To do this, they’ve been analysing blood donated by volunteers from both groups of people to see if their genes played a role. The unique study is especially important in light of new research that highlighted the disparities in symptoms across different demographics.
To date, nearly 8,000 people who tested positive with Covid but did not need to go to hospital have volunteered to take part. The preliminary results of the study have already identified possible new treatments to fight the virus, which are in clinical trials.
However, with the study due to close on June 20th, the scientists urgently need to recruit 600 more people and are appealing to those who had the virus from across Warrington and the wider region but did not require hospital treatment to sign up.
Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, Chief Scientist at Genomics England explains “We’re in a race against the clock to find another 600 suitable people to volunteer matched for age, gender and ethnicity of those people who were severely affected and needed hospital treatment. We particularly need more men to join the study and members of Warrington’s Asian and Black communities as these people were most severely affected by COVID”
“If you tested positive for Covid but did not need to go to hospital, please sign up. You’ll be making a real contribution to improving the medical care and outcome for those most at risk from the virus – both now and in the future.”
Once they’ve registered online, volunteers can make an appointment for a nurse to visit their home and take a small blood sample. The research project is open to anyone who tested positive to COVID but experienced mild or no symptoms and did not require hospital treatment – volunteers can register online here
