US President Donald Trump has said that the vaccine for the deadly coronavirus pandemic may be available within a month, regarding the expectations related to the covid-19 vaccine.

At a town hall event hosted by a news channel, Donald Trump said that the shot could be ready within four weeks.

"We're very close to having a vaccine. We're within weeks of getting it you know could be three weeks, four weeks," he said.

“The previous administration would have taken perhaps years to have a vaccine, because of the FDA and all the approvals,” Trump said.

Only hours earlier, speaking to Fox News on Tuesday morning, Trump had said a vaccine could come in "four weeks, it could be eight weeks."

Democrats have expressed concern that Trump is putting political pressure on government health regulators and scientists to approve a rushed vaccine in time to help turn around his uphill bid for reelection against challenger Joe Biden on November 3.

Experts including top US government infectious diseases doctor Anthony Fauci say vaccine approval is more likely toward the end of the year.

At the ABC town hall, Trump was asked why he'd downplayed the gravity of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has now killed close to 200,000 people in the US.

Trump replied by saying: "I didn't downplay it. I actually, in many ways, I up-played it in terms of action."

Source: Agencies