Vaccine unlikely ‘until at least next year’

A CORONAVIRUS vaccine is unlikely to be available until next year at the earliest, Britain’s chief medical officer warns.

Chris Whitty said the disease is likely to be a serious challenge for at least the next nine months.

Meanwhile, a fellow member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said Covid-19 might be a problem forever.

Professor Sir Mark Walport told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the pandemic will be controlled by “global vaccination” but is not going to be like smallpox, which could be eradicated by a vaccine.

Sir Mark said: “This is a virus that is going to be with us forever in some form or another and almost certainly will require repeated vaccinations.”

There had been hopes a jab might be ready as early as winter but Prof Whitty said he would be “quite surprised” if a mass-use vaccine would arrive before the end of winter, “certainly before this side of Christmas”. He said experts are “doing a huge amount” to produce a vaccine at “extraordinarily fast speed”, but added: “We have to check it works and make sure it’s safe.”

Prof Whitty said there was a “reasonable chance” the UK will have vaccines before the following winter and is confident that science will “get us out of this hole”. But he warned: “I don’t think we can expect it to happen in the next few weeks or even the next few months.”

There were 18 more virus deaths and 1,288 new cases yesterday, up from two deaths and 1,033 cases on Friday.