OXFORD University and app developers have joined forces to widen access to two clinical trials of potential coronavirus treatments.

The Covid Symptom Study app, downloaded by more than 3.5 million people in the UK, will allow users who test positive for the virus or show symptoms to be contacted about joining two university trials if they are signed up to its vaccine and trial registry.

The principle trial is looking at whether treatment early in the community can help people aged over 50 recover quickly from Covid-19, without the need for hospital admission.

The stoic study, meanwhile, is investigating the early use of a steroid inhaler, often used for asthma, as a treatment to reduce the chance of needing to go to hospital.

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Inhaled steroids are a type of medicine which reduces inflammation so could help prevent the virus becoming as serious.

Professor Mona Bafadhel, the stoic study chief investigator, said: “We know that steroid tablets or injections given in severe disease can help prevent death in Covid-19.

"We want to test if steroids in an inhaler form, like those given to patients with asthma and COPD, can stop people getting worse from Covid-19 when given early.

"Inhaled steroids are cheap medicines that are widely available throughout the world."