This isn’t just about patients getting ill. A vaccine could also help prevent healthcare staff absences, with current NHS policy stating any staff with symptoms of norovirus must leave work and not return until two days after their symptoms have passed.

The first norovirus vaccine could soon be rolled out across the UK - but what symptoms should we look out for in the meantime?

Experts hope the Moderna jab could stop people developing the vomiting and diarrhoea bug, which is linked to around 12,000 hospital admissions in the UK every year

The world’s first norovirus vaccine is set to be trialled by the NHS in a bid to ease the strain on already stretched hospitals.

The new mRNA vaccine from Moderna will enter final stages of testing within the next two weeks, with results so far showing it creates a “strong immune response”.

A new vaccine is to be trialled in the UK to deal with norovirus. Also known as the 'winter vomiting bug', norovirus is a highly transmissible stomach bug that causes vomiting and diarrhoea.

The jab uses mRNA technology to tell the immune system to recognise a ‘foreign’ protein on viruses and mount an attack.

A trial in the UK will see a norovirus given to patients with the Health Secretary hoping it will cut the “burden on the NHS”.