Coronavirus could become a "much more treatable disease" over the next six to 18 months, with the hope of a return to a "much more normal future", the head of the NHS England has said.
Sir Simon Stevens told MPs on Tuesday he hoped more treatments for Covid-19 would come on stream which, coupled with vaccination, would see a turn for the better.
"The first half of the year, vaccination is going to be crucial," he said.
"I think a lot of us in the health service are increasingly hopeful that the second half of the year and beyond we will also see more therapeutics and more treatments for coronavirus."
He said there were a number of potential new treatments in the pipeline "and I think it is possible that over the course of the next six to 18 months, coronavirus becomes a much more treatable disease with antivirals and other therapies, which alongside the vaccination programme holds out the hope of a return to a much more normal future".
It comes as more than 100,000 people have now died with Covid-19 in the UK.
The Welsh Government is due to review coronavirus lockdown regulations in Wales on Friday, January 29, though it has been warned that only marginal easements may be possible.
The number of daily positive cases is continuing to fall in Wales, with the infection rate down to 218.6 cases per 100,000 people based on the seven days up to January 21.
Moving below a level of 300 cases for every 100,000 and remaining there over a sustained period is one of the key benchmarks for moving out of alert level four lockdown.
However, other measures watched by the Welsh Government have not changed as substantially. The percentage of tests coming back positive is still significantly above the 10% benchmark.
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Speaking to BBC Wales on Friday, Wales' health minister said life may not return to normal until at least the spring.
Vaughan Gething said: "It really does depend, not just on our ability to vaccinate, but it depends on the course of the virus, and the new variants are a real factor in all of this.
"It also really depends on the level of pressure our NHS is under, because if we were to leave and have a significant relaxation, and we then found another surge, even a modest surge, could be enough to overtop the service, and that would cause tremendous and quite long term harm.
"So, it is a careful balance. I don't think we will be seeing by Easter, we will have returned to normal. I still think we will be living with some form of restrictions for some time to come because we know that community transmission is here, because we know that it is at a very high rate.
"There is a lot of challenges ahead for us."
