Covid vaccines could be offered to people in their 20s by the end of this week.
Currently anybody aged over 32 is eligible to book an appointment to get one of the vaccines.
Now, the Mail Online reports that the rollout is expected to be expanded to those aged 30 'early this week' and that officials believe it can be dropped even further shortly after.
A source was reported to have said: "The vaccine programme has been progressing at a rate of knots, getting to ever younger age groups, while continuing to offer second doses at a record pace.
"If all goes to plan, everyone in their thirties will hopefully have received their invite for a jab within 72 hours or so, with some in their twenties being called forward within the next week to ten days."
It comes as an expert warns people are not fully protected from the virus until they have had both jabs.
Professor Ravi Gupta, from the University of Cambridge and a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) advising the Government, said the PHE data showed “a single dose is not particularly protective and that’s the situation that many adults find themselves in during a period of easing of restrictions”.
He told BBC Breakfast that people needed to have a second dose but “even after the first dose, the chances of severe illness and death are markedly reduced and almost close to zero on the second dose”.
He said he believed the Indian variant “does have a significant advantage in humans and it would explain what we’ve been seeing in India where people who have been vaccinated are getting infected, as well as people who were infected previously getting reinfected.
“So, this is good evidence that the virus is adapting. It is something to worry about in the longer term because … we are opening up and I think that we need to seriously reconsider the pathway to full opening if we want to realise the benefits of vaccines fully.”
He said there were large sections of the UK population who are unvaccinated, “particularly young individuals who are going to be mixing”, and the virus was increasing in “proportionality, in terms of infection, so we really need to be very vigilant of this because, very quickly, it could run out of control”.
