England's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty braced the country for months more of social distancing.
He warned that without either a vaccine, or drugs that can treat coronavirus, the UK is likely to have to have to keep many of the restrictions in place.
While First Secretary of State Dominic Raab warned that the country is "not out of the woods yet" and that any loosening of the measures could put people at risk.
Professor Whitty explained: "In the long run the exit from this is going to be one of two things, ideally – a vaccine, and there are a variety of ways they can be deployed... and/or highly-effective drugs so that people stop dying of this disease even if they catch it, or which can prevent this disease in vulnerable people.
"Until we have those – and the probability of having those any time in the next calendar year are incredibly small, and I think we should be realistic about that – we're going to have to rely on other social measures, which of course are very socially disruptive as everyone is finding at the moment.
"But until that point, that is what we will have to do but it will be the best combination that maximises the outlooks.
“But it's going to take a long time and I think we need to be aware of that."
He also warned that coronavirus would not be eradicated or disappear and that we must accept it will exist globally for the foreseeable future.
First Secretary of State Dominic Raab, who is standing in for Boris Johnson while the Prime Minister recovers from the virus, said the country was “making progress through the peak of this virus but we're not out of the woods yet”.
"There is certainly light at the end of the tunnel, there is a glimmer, but we’re not there yet," he said at the Downing Street press conference.
"That's why the measures we introduced must remain in place for the time being.
"The greatest risk for us now, if we eased up on our social distancing rules too soon, is that we would risk a second spike in the virus with all the threats to life that would bring and then the risk of a second lockdown which would prolong the economic pain we are all going through."
