Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance has said that there is a possibility that small amounts of vaccine could be made available to certain groups of people by the end of the year.
He said there is “good progress being made” on developing a vaccine, adding: “Many vaccines now have shown they generate an immune response of a type that ought to be protective.
“We don’t yet know they will work but there is increasing evidence that is pointing in the right direction and it is possible that some vaccine could be available before the end of the year in small amounts for certain groups.
“Much more likely that we’ll see vaccines becoming available over the first half of next year, again not certain but pointed in the right direction, which then of course gives the possibility of a different approach to this virus.”
His comments came at a press briefing where Sir Patrick and England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty laid out the current state of the virus.
They said cases are doubling every seven days, with hospitalizations and deaths to follow, meaning that if the rate continued unchallenged there would be almost 50,000 new cases a day by mid-October and 200 deaths a day by mid-November.
Prime Minister Boiris Johnson is expected to set out tough new lockdown measures to stop that happening.
