The UK government's chief scientific adviser has said he does not think a working vaccine will be produced in time to affect the current coronavirus outbreak, BBC reported.

Sir Patrick Vallance told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I don't think we will get the vaccine for this outbreak.

"I don't think we'll get something in time or at scale for this outbreak."

There is currently no vaccine available to protect people against the disease.

Researchers have begun to test some on animals, and if that goes well there could be human trials later in the year.

But even if scientists can celebrate having developed a vaccine before Christmas, there is still the massive job of being able to mass-produce it.

Sir Patrick added that it was “not unreasonable to assume that we will end up with a vaccine” within the next 18 months.