The British High Commissioner to Ghana, Iain Walker says a lot of progress has been made in developing a vaccine for Covid-19.

Speaking in an interview with Kojo Yankson on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Wednesday, he indicated that as of May this year, the United Kingdom (UK) had committed a total of £760 million to Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, towards the development of a vaccine.

According to him, this is proof of the UK's support for scientific investments into the search of a Covid-19 vaccine around the world.

He added that the University of Oxford, which was one of the several research hubs in the UK dedicated to this search had made an impressive effort in conducting trials towards finding a vaccine.

“We are pleased to see them report that Phase I and Phase II of those trials have been successful … This means that over 1000 people have been used for this trial in the UK and elsewhere and it has been proven to be safe and without any serious or adverse effects”.

The High Commissioner said there were positive responses to the anti-body and immunity levels of the patients used in the clinical trials.

Phase III of the trials, however, would test “whether or not the vaccines can prevent transmission” of the virus. He cautioned that most trials in history had failed at this stage, nonetheless, Oxford University was working around the clock to “ensure that they produce a vaccine that can reach the broadest possible population as quickly as possible”.

However, until the vaccine is found Mr Walker cautioned the public to adapt its ways of working and living so that “we can live in an environment that has, unfortunately, Covid-19 presence”.

Iain Walker expressed his excitement at the speed at which the research had gone saying how much faster progress had gone in the development of this vaccine as opposed to the development of vaccines in the past.

"At this stage it is positive to see that this has gone very quickly. Most vaccines in history have taken an awful lot longer than necessary to get to this stage. So there's huge huge progress in a pretty short time".

When asked about the conspiracy theories surrounding the contributions of the Bill Gates Foundation who some claim to have the ulterior motive of wanting to depopulate the African continent, the High Commissioner indicated that with “every story of substance, there are many conspiracies that come along”.

He debunked the idea and revealed that the scientists working on the vaccine were of the “highest professional standard”, whose aim was in the interest of the people.

Iain Walker found it ludicrous that there were no conspiracy theories around the Bill Gates Foundation’s funding of the anti-malaria project in Africa. The search to find a vaccine for malaria in his opinion “is on a much bigger scale than Covid-19” on the continent.

Hinting on the conspiracy theories that surrounded vaccines in general, it was his hope that these conjectures would not prevent people from taking the Covid-19 vaccine when it is found.