More than one million people in the UK have received both doses of the coronavirus jab, new data shows.
The figures published by the health agencies of the four nations has been welcomed by Matt Hancock who said that the vaccine programme is working.
He added the data shows "we are heading in the right direction" but there is still further to go.
The figures show that hospital admissions at 12,136 - is "still too high" but that the average number of new admissions - 900 - is the lowest since October.
The Health Secretary told a Downing Street news briefing that the fall in the number of deaths was accelerating - down 41% on the previous week - suggesting the vaccination programme was working.
He said that two-fifths of the adult population of the UK have now received their first dose of the vaccine.
"What this all shows is that the link from cases to hospitalisations and then to deaths that had been unbreakable before the vaccine - that link is now breaking," he said.
"The vaccine is protecting the NHS, saving lives right across the country. The country's plan is working."
A total of 1,034,068 second doses had been given by March 4, according to the latest figures from health agencies in the four nations.
It means the equivalent of 2% of UK adults are now fully vaccinated against coronavirus.
Some 729,265 people have been given both doses in England, along with 154,819 in Wales, 108,197 in Scotland and 41,787 in Northern Ireland.
The cumulative number of second doses in the UK passed half a million on February 3, and started to pick up pace in the second half of last month, passing 800,000 on February 28 and 900,000 on March 3.
The seven-day rolling average of daily second doses stood at 4,253 on February 15, but had jumped to 27,356 by February 28.
The news comes as the number of coronavirus hospital deaths in Britain on have risen by 199 - a drop of 43 per cent on last Friday.
