Acting PM Dominic Raab warned that a coronavirus vaccine is “unlikely to come this year”.
The First Secretary said that Britain was unlikely to find a cure for the virus before the rnd of the year - but that it would still be vital in case the UK faced multiple waves of infection.
Appearing on Sophy Ridge on Sky, Mr Raab said:“The antibody test is important because it can tell whether you had the virus, there is also the swab test which says if you currently have the virus.
“We are looking at all of these measures to manage and try and bring an end to the coronavirus.
"We are also looking at the possibility of a vaccine, that's not likely to come to fruition this year, which could be very important if we get multiple waves of coronavirus globally down the track.”
It came as a top scientist warned that the number of deaths from coronavirus could reach 100,000 in the UK if the nationwide lockdown is lifted too soon.
Professor Neil Ferguson warned yesterday that it was impossible to send the young and healthy back to work while keeping vulnerable in lockdown without seeing a huge increase in deaths.
He told UnHerd: "In practical terms, you would require a very high level of effective shielding for that to be a viable strategy.
"If you just achieve 80 per cent shielding - and 80 per cent reduction in infection risk in those groups - we still project that you would get more than 100,000 deaths this years from that kind fo strategy.
"The most vulnerable people are also the people who most need care and most need interaction with the health system and are are least able to be truly isolated."
Mr Raab's warning was echoed by a former deputy chief medical officer for England.
Professor Gina Radford said people needed to be "realistic" about the prospect of a vaccine as researchers are having to "start from scratch" to create one.
It comes as the first human trials for a Covid-19 vaccine in the UK began on Thursday at the University of Oxford.
Prof Radford, who held her government role between 2015 and 2019, was asked on Sky News' Sophy Ridge On Sunday show about the prospect of a vaccine.
She said: "We haven't got a hugely good track record with vaccines for this particular virus, coronavirus, the family of viruses.
"But having said that, everything is being thrown at it. There are researchers all over the world trying to identify a vaccine.
"We have never seen anything like the effort that is being made to discover this vaccine."
Prof Radford said there is a "huge process" of testing that needs to be undertaken to determine if potential vaccines are safe and effective.
"There is no point creating a vaccine that will then cause more harm than it is trying to prevent," she added.
"I think those who are very used to the process of developing vaccines are saying they are not anticipating it being available until well into next year."
Prof Radford said that while the vaccine could be created sooner as the Government is "fast-tracking" its development, it would still have to be manufactured in a large capacity.
Human trials on a potential vaccine saw the first two volunteers in the UK injected by researchers at the University of Oxford on Thursday.
Both participants - a scientist and a cancer researcher - said they wanted to help in what could be a groundbreaking development in the fight against the disease.
The Oxford Vaccine Group was hoping to repeat the process with six more volunteers on Saturday, moving to larger numbers on Monday.
