WALES' chief medical officer said he is "optimistic" a coronavirus vaccine will be found, but warned of the challenges of meeting global demand.

Dr Frank Atherton said a vaccine would be "one of the ways out of the conundrum we find ourselves in".

He said he was hopeful a vaccine could be ready in the early part of next year, but any vaccinations would have to be prioritised – at first – to protect vulnerable people and frontline workers.

The chief medical officer said Wales was contributing to several vaccine trials currently under way, and health boards across Wales were currently planning how a nationwide vaccine programme could be run.

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But he acknowledged that the search for a working Covid-19 vaccine was "not a smooth journey by any means" and it was "really difficult to judge" the timeframe.

"It's going to be very complex to deliver a vaccination programme against coronavirus," he added. "When a vaccine becomes available – although the UK has made some advance purchase arrangements...the demand globally is going to be enormous and getting adequate stocks to everybody will be very challenging."

Dr Atherton repeated advice on basic public safety measures – practising social distancing, washing hands, wearing a face covering when required, and working from home when possible.

"We expect and hope a vaccine will be coming... and there's a lot of work going on at a UK level in terms of procurement of potential vaccines," he said. "There are a number of promising candidates and we hope that in the early part of next year we'll start to see vaccinations becoming available.

"It certainly won't be available to everybody immediately, and so we'll have to have some prioritisation to think about how we will protect our most vulnerable and our health and care system."