Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said it had "voluntarily paused" a randomized clinical trial of its coronavirus vaccine in what it called a routine action after a volunteer developed an unexplained illness. It was not immediately clear where the patient was, or the nature and severity of their illness. As a frontrunner in the global race for a Covid-19 vaccine, AstraZeneca is one of nine companies currently in Phase 3 - the late-stage trials for their vaccine candidates and is developing the drug alongside the University of Oxford.