The NHS is ready to roll out a coronavirus vaccine within weeks “in case everything goes perfectly,” Matt Hancock has said, but the Health Secretary warned that his “central expectation” is that the process would not be completed until mid-2021.

Quizzed about whether there would be some roll-out of a vaccine this year, Mr Hancock told the BBC: “Well, I don’t rule that out, but that is not my central expectation. The vaccine programme is progressing well”.


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“The leading candidates we’re in very close contact with. On my central expectation, I would expect the bulk of the roll-out to be in the first half of next year. Nevertheless, of course, we’re doing the preparatory work now for how that will be rolled out”.

“We’ve got the joint committee on vaccinations and immunisations has set out the order of priority and, of course, we’re doing the logistical work led by the NHS, working with the armed services who are playing an important role in the logistics of it, to ensure that we have that roll-out programme ready, but preparing for a roll-out and actually having the stuff to roll out are two different things”.

“So it’s obviously something that we want to happen as soon as safely can be done and as fast as safely can be done, but we are not there yet.”

Mr Hancock also suggested a vaccine would not provide an escape route from the social restrictions until next year. His comments come as experts said the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine shows a “strong immune response” among elderly participants. Information from an earlier stage of the Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine candidate trial suggests “similar” immune responses among younger and older adults, scientists said.

Data on the safety and immune responses among those taking part in the phase two vaccine trial has been submitted for peer review in a medical journal. But the findings have been discussed before publication, prompting more excitement about the vaccine – considered one of the forerunners in the COVID-19 vaccine race.

The vaccine is currently in a phase three clinical trial, which means the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine is being tested by thousands of participants across a number of different countries. Experts have predicted that the data from the trial could be presented to regulators within weeks.