Britain can "get out of" the coronavirus pandemic "by spring", Matt Hancock claimed today after a crucial vaccine breakthrough.
The England Health Secretary made the bold pledge after regulators approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab for use in the UK.
The government has ordered 100million doses of the jab, enough for 50million people, on top of enough of the separate Pfizer jab for 20million people.
Rollout of the Oxford vaccine will start on Monday, January 4 "and really accelerate into the first few weeks of next year", Mr Hancock said.
But he said he could not put a figure on the exact number of jabs that will be given when.
The health secretary said lifting restrictions would also depend on how fast it could be manufactured - not just how fast it could be distributed once it is made.
But he told Sky News: “The NHS stands ready to deploy at the sort of pace that is needed to be able to help us to get out of this pandemic by the Spring.
“The NHS will deliver the vaccine into people’s arms as fast as it can be produced.”
He went on: “I’m also now with this approval this morning highly confident that we can get enough vulnerable people vaccinated by the spring that we can now see our route out of this pandemic.”
And he added: “We also know all of us now that there’s a route out of this and the vaccine provides that route out, we’ve just got to all hold our nerve over the weeks to come until the vaccine can make us all safe.”
Asked if that would happen by spring he replied: “It will be by the spring, and we can say that now with confidence, that we’ll be able to get out of this by the spring.”
