With other cities across the UK already in lockdown, including Bolton and Manchester, and more countries being removed from the government’s travel corridor list, it looks as though coronavirus will continue to impact our daily lives for some time.

Is there any consensus on when the pandemic might come to an end?

Here’s what different experts have said…

When could coronavirus be over?

There’s really no way to be certain as so much still remains unclear regarding the effectiveness of any proposed vaccines, and if there will be further spikes.

Some, including Dr Hilary Jones are predicting a second spike soon.

This is as the cases in the UK continue to grow, with nearly 3,000 new cases reported recently, in a development that has been called ‘concerning’ by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Thoughts on the more extreme end of the spectrum predict that the pandemic could affect daily life until 2023.

Professor Hendrik Streeck, a prominent German virologist, predicted the world would see regular outbreaks of Covid-19 until at least 2023, stating: ‘It will still be here in three years and we have to find a way to live with it.

Previously, the head of the World Health Organisation said he hopes the coronavirus pandemic will be over in two years.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the length of the global Spanish flu outbreak in the years after the First World War was a good comparison.

‘Our situation now with more technology, of course with more connectiveness, the virus has a better chance of spreading, it can move fast,’ he said.

‘At the same time we have the technology and knowledge to stop it.’

Towns and cities are facing local lockdowns up and down the country as cases climb

The latest update from Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggests that, at the earliest, we’re looking at a vaccine being rolled out in early 2021.

Speaking to LBC today, he said the Government has an order for 30 million doses already contracted with AstraZeneca.

The UK pharmaceutical giant has linked up with the University of Oxford to conduct human trials in preparation for making the vaccine available to the general public.

Thousands of volunteers have already been given the jab – known as AZD1222 – with the study involving 50,000 people worldwide.

Would mass testing help the UK return to ‘normal?’

The other factor that could affect how quickly things return to normality is the availability of testing to contain the virus.

Again, speaking to LBC, Hancock touched on the proposal of mass-testing, indicating that there is a ‘holy grail’ hope of same-day testing to help monitor and reduce the impact of the virus.

He said: ‘Under the mass-testing proposal you’d essentially get a pass to say “for the next 24 hours we are confident that you’re not infectious”. You might still be incubating it and get ill a week later.

He added the ‘holy grail’ of testing would be a ‘pregnancy-style test’ where a person could take a saliva swab in the morning to know they were not infectious that day.

‘If we get to that position that would transform how we act as a society, short of a vaccine’.