THE coronavirus lockdown will only properly end when a vaccine has been discovered, the UK Government’s chief medical adviser has warned.

Speaking at the daily Downing Street briefing, Professor Chris Whitty said that could mean some form of restriction on our day-to-day lives over Christmas and until 2021.

The Government worries that easing restrictions too soon might lead to a second, much more severe wave of Covid-19 cases.

“If people are hoping it’s suddenly going to move from where we are in lockdown into where suddenly everything is gone, that is a wholly unrealistic expectation,” Whitty said.

“We are going to have to do a lot of things for really quite a long period of time – the question is what is the best package, and this is what we’re trying to work out.”

He added: “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 is 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.”

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The comments came as 759 new coronavirus deaths across the UK were confirmed, taking the total death toll to 18,100.

Though Financial Times analysis published yesterday suggested the real figure could be closer to 41,000.

Updating MPs in the Commons, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the UK was now at the peak of the outbreak.

He said social distancing was working, adding: “It is making a difference. We are at the peak.”

He also said the Government was ramping up mass testing and contact tracing.

That’s the process of finding those who are infected with coronavirus and tracking down their contacts.

Hancock told MPs the expansion of testing capacity “was ahead of plans” and the number of people eligible for testing was being expanded.

“And as we have reached the peak, and as we bring the number of new cases down, we will introduce contact tracing at large scale,” he said.

However, the latest Government figures showed less than half the testing capacity was used in the 24 hours up to 9am on Tuesday.

That was raised during Prime Minister’s Questions, the first since the lockdown.

Dominic Raab – who is currently standing in for the recuperating Boris Johnson – was pressed on the gap by new Labour leader Keir Starmer.

Just 50 MPs were in the House of Commons for the clash, with most others taking part remotely.

Starmer questioned the Government’s progress towards its target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month and claimed that opportunities to acquire personal protective equipment (PPE) from British firms had been missed.

He said: “There is a pattern emerging here. We were slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on protective equipment and now slow to take up these offers from British firms.”

Raab told him the Government was guided by scientific advisers.

He said that if Starmer “thinks he knows better than they do, with the benefit of hindsight, then that’s his decision”.

Raab said 8000 British businesses had responded to a call for assistance on PPE and they had all received a response, with 3000 followed up where it was “sensible” if they had equipment with the required specification and volume.

He said it was an “incredibly difficult and competitive international environment” to source PPE from overseas.

Starmer questioned how the Government would meet their pledge of 100,000 tests a day in just eight days – particularly as some care workers and NHS staff could only be tested if they could drive to a site.

Raab said mobile labs were now being used, with the Army also helping.

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