AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot said the company will be able to ramp up production of the coronavirus vaccine “very rapidly”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it will be able to deliver up to two million doses a week.
“We are aligning our delivery schedule with the Government so we can progressively ramp up the vaccination programme,” he said.
“We are going to start doing this and ramp up the deliveries over the next two to three weeks. We are going to be able to do that very rapidly in the first and second week of January.
“We will start delivering this week – maybe today or tomorrow we will be shipping our first doses.
“The vaccination will start next week and we will get to one million a week and beyond that very rapidly.
“We can go to two million. In January we will already possibly be vaccinating several million people and by the end of the first quarter we are going to be in the tens of millions already.”
England Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said every adult will be able to be vaccinated, with the exception of those who cannot have the jab for medical reasons.
He told Times Radio: “We have enough of this vaccine on order that all adults can have this vaccine and of course we’ll go to those who are clinically most vulnerable first and the healthcare professionals and those colleagues who work in social care.
“We’ll go to them first, according to that clinical prioritisation but yes, after that this vaccine will be available for the under-50s.”
Mr Hancock added the vaccine has not been approved for use in children.
