Boris Johnson said he believes Covid-19 can be defeated by spring 2021.
He told MPs that scientists are “bleak” in their predictions over the short-term but “unanimously optimistic about the medium and the long-term”, adding: “If the House asks me what is the exit strategy, what is the way out – let me be as clear as I can: the way out is to get the R down now to beat this autumn surge and to use this moment to exploit the medical and technical advances we’re making to keep it low.”
The Prime Minister highlighted the “immediate prospect” of the use of “many millions of cheap, reliable and rapid turnaround tests with a result in minutes”, adding trials have shown it can suppress the disease in hospitals, schools and universities.
Mr Johnson also flagged dexamethasone as a treatment, adding: “We have the real prospect of a vaccine in the first quarter of next year.”
He went on: “I believe these technical developments taken together will enable us to defeat the virus by the spring, as humanity has defeated every other infectious disease and I’m not alone in this optimism.
“But I cannot pretend the way ahead is easy without painful choices for us all, and so for the next four weeks I must again ask the people of this country to come together, to protect the NHS and to save many thousands of lives.”
