England Health Secretary Matt Hancock has told MPs that people may need to have a coronavirus vaccine every six months.
But he said he believed this would be the last lockdown that was required, because of the vaccines.
“There is absolutely no doubt that vaccines and testing will still be a feature next year,” he told the Health and Social Care Committee.
“We will need both the surveillance testing to be able to understand where the virus is and we will need testing for people who have symptoms, in the same way that you get tested for all sorts of other things.”
On vaccines, Mr Hancock said: “I anticipate we will probably need to revaccinate because we don’t know the longevity of the protection from these vaccines.
“We don’t know how frequently it will be, but it might need to be every six months, it might need to be every year.”
Asked if he thought this would be the “last of the lockdowns” because of the vaccines, Mr Hancock said: “I do, yes.”
