Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the best-case scenario for a vaccine would be one being available this year.
Speaking during health questions, Mr Hancock said work on a vaccine continues and trials “have gone well”.
The University of Oxford vaccine “continues to be the world leader”, he said, but the government has contracts with six different vaccine providers “so that whichever comes off we can get access in this country”.
Mr Hancock said the government would like to enable private companies to have greater access to testing to aid economic recovery.
“The ability to provide tests to parts of the private sector who need to know that people don’t have the virus in order to be able to reopen parts of the economy, or just enable things to happen,” he said.
“That is a very important part of where we would like to get to when we have the next generation of testing.
“At the moment, of course, we have to follow a clinical protocol in terms of the use of the capacity that we’ve got.”
Mr Hancock added that A&E capacity is being expanded in time for winter, with “billions more funding to the NHS” to prevent a second peak.
And he said a new advertising campaign is to be launched soon to remind people what they can do to limit the spread of COVID-19.
It will remind people that social distancing and personal hygiene is “the first line of defence” and will urge them to get a test if they have any symptoms.
“We must do everything in our power to protect against a second wave here in the UK,” he said after noting large case rises in France and Spain.
