Kate Garraway praises ‘brave volunteers’ being infected with coronavirus for vaccine trial as husband fights in hospital

KATE Garraway has praised the "brave volunteers" being infected with coronavirus for a vaccine trial as her husband Derek continues to fight the deadly disease in hospital.

The 53-year-old star also expressed concern for those who were offering to contract the illness during today's instalment of Good Morning Britain.

She appeared on the programme alongside Strictly's Ranvir Singh, with the two women speaking to Dr Amir Khan about the groundbreaking trial.

Kate explained: "There is a new trial, which we were all surprised about, taking part at Oxford University.

"The interesting thing is they're calling for healthy volunteers to be infected with Covid now.

"I didn't think that was happening, I mean, it's a brave volunteer who does that."

Dr Amir then detailed the facts around the "human challenge programme", explaining that fit and healthy people aged between 18 and 30 were being asked to take part.

He added: "It'll be under very controlled circumstances to find out how much of the virus is needed to cause the infection.

"They are slowly going to expose them to small quantities of the virus to see what the threshold is, which might help with a vaccine.

"They will be monitoring these people very carefully, it'll be very controlled, and there'll be rescue medication should any of them get sick."

But Kate clearly had her husband's ongoing plight with coronavirus at the forefront of her mind, arguing: "When you say very controlled, it's a disease that we don't fully understand.

"So they could be watching you very carefully and then suddenly you can be one of those unfortunate people that suddenly develop symptoms that we still don't have a cure for."

Dr. Amir agreed: "It's a trial, things can go wrong. They're very brave volunteers who will go forward for it."

Last week, Kate emotionally updated fans on Derek's condition in hospital, revealing their children 14-year-old Darcey and 11-year-old Billy hadn't seen their dad in a long time.

She told GMB co-host Susanna Reid: "The problem is, I feel like I'm boring everyone to death because it ends up being the same, he is stable but actually in between there are big ups and downs. Not big ups - small improvements and worrying downs.

"The last few days have been pretty stable so we are keeping everything crossed.

"Darcey has not been able to see Derek, his mum and dad haven't been able to see him. They are in tier 2 in Lancashire and so could go into lockdown and might not be able to see him for months."

The Sun recently revealed Derek is now the country’s longest-fighting Covid-19 patient after marking six months in hospital.

He was was hospitalised on March 28 and has spent more than 180 days in and out of intensive care.

Since falling ill with symptoms at the end of March, Derek tested positive and was then admitted to intensive care where he was put on a ventilator.

He spent several weeks in ICU, before being woken from an induced coma in July.

Since then he has been in a state of “minimum consciousness” — and is yet to utter his first word.

Derek has had at least two health scares since then, including two big falls in blood pressure and a swelling in his legs which medics feared was a clot.

He has also lost a staggering eight stone since his ordeal began, with brave Kate regularly updating fans on his medical battle via GMB and social media.