THE Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he believes Covid-19 can be defeated by spring next year.

Appearing in the House of Commons this afternoon, the PM said the country had the "real prospect" of a vaccine in the first quarter of 2021.

He told MPs that scientists are “bleak” in their predictions over the short-term but “unanimously optimistic about the medium and the long-term”.

He said: “If the House asks me what is the exit strategy, what is the way out – let me be as clear as I can: the way out is to get the R down now to beat this autumn surge and to use this moment to exploit the medical and technical advances we’re making to keep it low.”

The PM highlighted the “immediate prospect” of the use of “many millions of cheap, reliable and rapid turnaround tests with a result in minutes”, adding trials have shown it can suppress the disease in hospitals, schools and universities.

Mr Johnson also flagged dexamethasone as a treatment, adding: “We have the real prospect of a vaccine in the first quarter of next year.”

He went on: “I believe these technical developments taken together will enable us to defeat the virus by the spring, as humanity has defeated every other infectious disease and I’m not alone in this optimism.

“But I cannot pretend the way ahead is easy without painful choices for us all, and so for the next four weeks I must again ask the people of this country to come together, to protect the NHS and to save many thousands of lives.”

When quizzed on the country's strategy for leaving the national lockdown, the PM told MPs that England would return to a tiered system “based on the data”.

He said: “(Keir Starmer) asks when these measures will end – and they will end, as I’ve told the House already, on December 2 – and the House has the right to decide and will vote on whatever measures it chooses to bring in, but we will then go back to the tiered system, based on the data as it presents itself.”

Mr Johnson added: “(Mr Starmer) asks the people of this country to stand together against the coronavirus and I couldn’t agree with him more.

“All I may respectfully say is I think the people of this country would also like to see the politicians of this country standing together a little more coherently in the face of this virus.”

More coronavirus coverage from The Northern Echo