A coronavirus vaccine is ‘unlikely’ to be ready this year, Dominic Raab has said.

The First Secretary of State, who is currently leading the country while Boris Johnson recovers from Covid-19, warned that the process of making a vaccine would take a while.

Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, he said: ‘The antibody test is important because it can tell whether you had the virus, there is also the swab test which says if you currently have the virus.

‘We are looking at all of these measures to manage and try and bring an end to the coronavirus. We are also looking at the possibility of a vaccine, that’s not likely to come to fruition this year, which could be very important if we get multiple waves of coronavirus globally down the track.’

Raab’s words come just days after the first UK patients were injected with a trial vaccine created by University of Oxford scientists. Around 1,100 people are taking part in the study.

Half of the participants will receive the Covid-19 vaccine, while the other half will have a meningitis vaccine. The number of infections between the two groups will then be compared.

It will take at least a ‘couple of months’ to see if the vaccine works, researchers have said. If the rate of coronavirus transmission slows, this will make the process take longer, they said.

If the vaccine is successful it will then need to be mass manufactured, so that it can be widely distributed, Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University said.

Trials of a second coronavirus vaccine are also set to begin in June at Imperial College London, with volunteers expected to be recruited in the next two months.

Raab has also rejected calls to ease lockdown restrictions, stating that the government is trying to avoid a second spike in infections,

The Government is coming under intense pressure from senior Tories to relax the strict social-distancing measures, amid concern at the damage they are doing to the economy. But Raab said the pandemic is still at a ‘delicate and dangerous’ stage.

He told Sky News: ‘We need to make sure that the next steps are sure-footed, which is why we are proceeding very cautiously and we are sticking to the scientific advice with the social-distancing measures at this time, whilst doing all the homework to make sure that we are prepared in due course for the next phase.’

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