Earlier, government scientific adviser Prof John Edmunds told Andrew Marr the R rate - the number of people a person with Covid passes the virus on to, on average - could rise above one if all schools reopen on 8 March.

Asked about the comments, Hancock says: "This is another reason why we must stay vigilant."

"We're going to be vigilant as to the effect of all measures on the number of infections and also the link from infections on hospitalisations and deaths, which we hope will be changed by the vaccines," he adds.

Hancock also tells Marr that hospital admissions are falling "much more sharply than they were in the first wave... but clearly the level is far too high".

"That's why the prime minister will be setting out a road map. We can't lift the measures right now, but we can see that direction of travel," he says.

"But it's not just because of the vaccine it's because everyone has been coming forward and getting the vaccine."

He adds: "The good news is, as of this morning, one in three of all adults in the whole country have been vaccinated...we are confident that the vaccine works effectively against both the old strain and the so-called Kent variant which is now the main source of infection in this country."

He also says ministers are "confident" that the vaccine works "effectively" against the original strain and the "Kent variant".

But he adds that "we do not yet have the confidence" that it is effective against the South African and Brazilian variants.

But he says enhanced contract tracing and measures at the border are reducing the cases, he tells the BBC's Andrew Marr.

Image source, Shutterstock

The BBC's Andrew Marr asks Matt Hancock why DJ Jo Whiley was offered a vaccine before her sister Frances, who has a learning disability and diabetes.

Frances, who has the rare Cri du Chat genetic syndrome, has since tested positive for coronavirus after there was an outbreak in her care home.

The health secretary says: "In group six we vaccinate those with learning disabilities and their carers, that group are now being offered vaccines as we speak."

Marr says this is not the case for those with mild learning difficulties.

Hancock says: "I felt so strongly about this that when the JCVI came forward with their draft prioritisation I asked them to check again on this precise point and they did and they prioritised according to how you save the most deaths the most quickly".

He says: "We followed the advice but my heart goes out to the Whiley family."

Whiley, 55, earlier told Marr "it's been the worst week of our lives" as her sister, 53, fights for her life in hospital.

Asked by Andrew Marr about controversial PPE contracts, Health Secretary Matt Hancock says his team did the "right thing" and was "totally focused on saving lives".

He says there was a "technical issue" in that "we were just over a fortnight late on average with the publication of these things".

"We were very, very tight on PPE and... thanks to the incredible work of my team we didn't have a national shortage," he says.

Marr asks whether there was something "fundamentally wrong" in the awarding of PPE contracts.

Hancock says there are "loose ends" that need tying up but stresses again his team did the "right thing".

David Lammy also tells Andrew Marr that Matt Hancock should cancel the scheme he has been using to award contracts for things like PPE during coronavirus.

Marr asks the Labour MP what should happen after the health secretary was found by a court to have acted unlawfully over the length of time it took to release details of contracts awarded in the early stage of the pandemic.

Lammy says: "He should publish the contracts because the court has found it unlawful, he should cancel the temporary scheme he's been using without any accountability or transparency and he should come to Parliament on Monday and explain what he's going to do."

Marr says the audit office found no evidence of conflict of interest in the awarding of the contracts.

More on this story here.

Labour MP David Lammy says some children should be taught outside in "Nightingale classes" when schools go back as restrictions are lifted.

The shadow justice secretary says: "We all want children back in schools on 8 March .... it's how we do it safely and to do that you do need Nightingale classes - extra classes outside schools."

He tells the BBC's Andrew Marr: "It's bizarre the government didn't use last week to vaccinate teachers... you've got to have mass testing that works across our school estate."

He says he supports all children being back in school on 8 March "if it can be done safely".

Prof John Edmunds also tells the BBC's Andrew Marr that "there is an argument for turning to children as fast as we can" when it comes to vaccination.

"We're all at risk and we can all spread the virus, and until we've all been vaccinated - I include children here - then there is going to be significant risk of a resurgence," he tells Andrew Marr.

"There has been major disruption in schools and there will continue to be major disruption in schools until we have vaccinated our children."

A leading government scientific adviser says lockdown must been eased off "gradually" because the "risk" from the South African variant will come when restrictions end.

Prof John Edmunds, an infectious diseases expert, tells the BBC's Andrew Marr the variant is being "held in place by the lockdown" and if rules are not eased off gradually, there will be "a surge in hospitalisations and deaths".

"The more infections there are in the community the greater the risk of further mutations occurring," he adds.

"Which could reduce the effectiveness of the vaccination programme."

Prof Edmunds, a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), also says we are "starting to see the epidemic slow down".

But it is becoming "concentrated in slightly harder to reach groups", he tells Marr.

"Very similar to what happened in late spring and summer of last year, as the epidemic shrunk then it persisted a little bit in certain groups of the population," he says.

Tory MP Mark Harper has urged the prime minister to consider scrapping Covid-19 restrictions at the end of April.

Harper, who chairs the lockdown sceptic Covid Recovery Group of backbenchers, tells the BBC's Andrew Marr "once you've protected the top four groups, which we have now vaccinated, we want to start that unlocking progress" and most importantly get children back to school on 8 March.

Then he wants Boris Johnson to consider "getting rid of restrictions at the end of April once you've vaccinated the top nine groups which account for 99% of deaths and 80% of hospitalisations", he tells Marr.

"That's the point that restrictions should be lifted," he says.

A scientific adviser to the government says coronavirus cases are falling "impressively fast" but that is "primarily the lockdown and not the vaccine programme".

Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), told BBC Breakfast: "The vaccine programme is beginning to have an impact now, I think, on the rates of hospitalisation, according to the studies we're doing here in Bristol, but it's only just starting.

"The reason we're seeing this impact at the moment is not the vaccine programme.

"But, conversely, getting the vaccine programme done and rolling it out across the population will be really important, as we go forward, in continuing to bring the virus circulation down and reducing the chance of emergence of new variants that might escape that immunity."

Prof Finn, from the University of Bristol, says the capacity in the system will need to expand as people come forward for their second doses.

On the government's new goal for all adults in the UK to be offered a coronavirus vaccine by the end of July, he said: "I think it's great to be ambitious and certainly doing this faster is a good idea."

Starmer also accuses the government of not being "serious about dealing with inequality" as a result of the pandemic.

Asked about the furlough scheme, he says: "I'm not suggesting we ignore that, of course they've taken measures... we think they should have gone further in various places."

But he adds: "The idea that this is some conversion... to social democracy I think is completely wrong."

Starmer says he doesn't want the health secretary to resign over PPE contracts.

This week a court ruled Matt Hancock acted unlawfully when his department did not reveal details of contracts it had signed during the Covid pandemic.

"I do think he's wrong about the contracts," Starmer says.

"I want all government ministers working really hard to get us through this because whatever the political differences, what the public knows is this needs to succeed."

Hancock addressed the issue earlier on Sky's Sophy Ridge, saying he won't resign.

Starmer says there should be a national debate on "Covid passports".

He says he would "be very worried" if it were suggested people would lose their jobs if they didn't have the vaccine, for example.

"I really think on this one we need a proper national debate, let's not pretend there is an easy answer," he says.

Starmer says he wants to get children back into school "ideally" on the 8 March.

"We're going to have to carefully, of course we are," he tells Sophy Ridge.

"I've always been concerned about the impact on children being out of school."

Image source, PA Media

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomes the news about the target to vaccinate all adults by 31 July.

"It's very uplifting," he tells Sky's Sophy Ridge.

He says he wants to see a "cautious careful exit from lockdown".

"We all want this to be the last lockdown," he says.

But he adds that businesses "desperately need more support".

The health secretary also says he will not resign over a court ruling which found he broke the law by not publishing the details of PPE contracts within 30 days of them being awarded.

"It's important to be clear on what this court case did and didn't find," he tells Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

"It did not find there was a problem with any of the contracts," he says.

But it did find that "on average we published them in the heat of the crisis in 47 days after they were signed".

He says he has always been committed to publishing the details of contracts awarded by the government and will continue to do so.

More from the health secretary. He also says the number of cases of the Brazilian and South Africa variants are coming down. But he adds we must remain vigilant against the new variants.

"If one of these variants doesn't respond to the vaccine as well as the standard variant in the UK which is the Kent variant then that's obviously a very serious risk for the vaccination programme," he says.

But the good news is the actions we are taking right now do appear to be working, he says.

Asked if the UK was to host the European football championships this summer he says: "I haven't seen anything on that, I understand that's not right."

Image source, Reuters

There are clinical trials under way as to whether children should be vaccinated against coronavirus, Matt Hancock says.

"It absolutely must be safe specifically for children", he says.

"Children very, very rarely get symptoms and serious illness from the disease."

Therefore the aim of vaccinating children is to stop the spread of the disease, he tells Sky's Sophy Ridge.

He says early evidence shows the jab cuts the rate of transmission by about two-thirds.

Getting schools back is a top priority for the government, he adds.

The health secretary says the government now has a "new target" for the vaccine rollout in England.

Categories 1-9, the most vulnerable people, over-50s and health and social care workers will receive their jabs by 15 April, Matt Hancock tell Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

After that, all adults should be offered the jab by the end of July, he says.

Vaccines are able to be delivered at a rate of 500,000 a day, he says.

As the famous saying goes, limitation breeds creativity.

And you can't get much more limited than being locked down during a global pandemic.

Peter Quinn, who works in motion design, is taking the internet by storm with his homemade special effects creations: