Vaccine programme rolled out to millions more people most at risk from Covid-19

More than 3.8m people - including the over-80s, care home residents and NHS and social care staff - have already received their first dose of a vaccine, but from today it will be rolled out in the next two priority groups.

The Government said it would remain the priority to vaccinate those in the first two groups, but that sites which have enough supply and capacity to vaccinate more people will be allowed to offer jabs to the next two cohorts.

Mr Johnson has pledged to offer vaccinations to the first four priority groups by the middle of next month, while Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said yesterday that all adults would be offered a first dose by September.

The Prime Minister said: “Today is a significant milestone in our vaccination programme as we open it up to millions more people who are most at risk from Covid 19.

“We are now delivering the vaccine at a rate of 140 jabs a minute and I want to thank everyone involved in this national effort.

“We have a long way to go and there will doubtless be challenges ahead - but by working together we are making huge progress in our fight against this virus.”

The announcement came as Mr Raab pledged yesterday (Sun Jan 17) that every adult in the UK will be offered a first dose of a vaccine by September.

He said it would be “great” if the roll-out could be faster, but that the Government was working to the early autumn target.

Mr Raab told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “Our target is by September to have offered all the adult population a first dose. If we can do it faster than that, great, but that’s the roadmap.”

His pledge came amid dire warnings about the “extreme pressure” on the NHS - as it was revealed a coronavirus patient is admitted to hospital “every 30 seconds”.

NHS England’s chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said: “Since Christmas Day we’ve seen another 15,000 increase in the in-patients in hospitals across England, that’s the equivalent of filling 30 hospitals full of coronavirus patients.

“Staggeringly, every 30 seconds in England another patient is being admitted to hospital with coronavirus.”

He said the NHS will start testing 24/7 vaccinations in some hospitals in the next 10 days.

Speaking about the latest phase of the vaccine roll-out announced last night, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Now that more than half of all over-80s have had their jab, we can begin vaccinating the next most vulnerable groups.

"We are working day and night to make sure everyone who is 70 and over, our health and social care workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable are offered the vaccine by the middle of February and our NHS heroes are making huge strides in making this happen.

“This measure does not mean our focus on getting care homes, healthcare staff and those aged 80 and over vaccinated is wavering - it will remain our utmost priority over the coming weeks to reach the rest of these groups.”

Ten more mass vaccination centres including the Askham Bar park-and-ride site on the outskirts of York will open in England during this week, with more than a million over-80s invited to receive their coronavirus jab.

NHS England said the new locations will join the seven existing mass vaccination sites, alongside 1,000 GP-led surgeries and more than 250 hospitals already providing jabs.

It was announced yesterday another 671 people died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, with a further 38,598 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.

The Government’s official toll is 89,261 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, but the true total is more than 104,000 when death certificates mentioning Covid-19 are included.

- The number of people in the UK to have been given a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine has risen to nearly four million, according to data published by the Government yesterday (Sun Jan 17)

A total of 3,857,266 people had received a first dose as of January 16 - marking an increase of 298,087 from Saturday’s figures.

Some 140,559 first doses have been given in Northern Ireland, on top of the 3,365,492 in England, 126,375 in Wales and 224,840 in Scotland.

So far, 449,736 second doses have been administered throughout the UK.

The total number of jabs administered in the UK, including both first and second doses, is 4,307,002.