Sky News understands that the NHS is being asked to prepare for a possible vaccine rollout in early December.

GP Magazine Pulse first reported that GPs are being put on standby to vaccinate more than 85 and frontline health workers from the beginning of next month.

Family physicians will receive a “guided extension service” (DES) from next week to determine how they will provide this service, the magazine said.

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A Coronavirus The vaccine has not yet been approved and will have to go through regulators to make sure it is safe and effective before it is made available to the public.

However, there are two vaccine candidates who are currently in late-stage clinical trials and may send clinical data to regulators within a few weeks.

The top two are potential vaccines from the German company Biotech and the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.

A committee to advise the government on the vaccine has already decided which group should be given priority for receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.

Care home residents and staff should be given any approved vaccines first, the Joint Committee on Immunization and Vaccination said.

Thereafter, everyone 80 years of age or older and health and social workers should be on the other side of the job.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “Although there is no certainty about the development, production and timing of new vaccines, a COVID-19 vaccine could be available in the UK in early 2021.

“Once proven to be safe and effective through strong clinical trials, it will only be approved if it is approved by a drug regulator approved by the MHRA (Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency).

“Once approved, the NHS is ready to begin vaccination activities among the more at-risk, before launching more.”

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It has also been warned that the first set of coronavirus vaccines are “likely to be incomplete” and “probably not work for everyone”.

Kate Bingham, chair of the UK Vaccine Task Force, recently wrote in The Lancet: “We do not know that we will ever have a vaccine. It is important to protect ourselves from complacency and over-optimism.

“The first generation of vaccines is likely to be incomplete and we should be prepared that they can not only prevent infection but also reduce symptoms and even then, probably not work for everyone or for more days.”