Image source, University of Oxford

Prof Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, said the approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was "very good news" and he paid tribute to those involved.

He said: “There has been a considerable collective effort that has brought us to this point.

“The dedication and hard work of scientists, regulators and those who funded the research."

He also praised the volunteers who took part in vaccine trials for their "willingness and selflessness" which he says was "essential in delivering this safe and effective vaccine".

"They deserve our recognition and thanks," he added.

Image source, Getty Images

Away from the breaking news on the vaccine - the US has reported its first case of the highly infectious Covid-19 variant that emerged in the UK.

The case was detected in the state of Colorado. The patient, a man in his 20s with no recent travel history, is currently in isolation.

Health officials said they were working to identify contacts and other potential cases of the new variant.

Experts say the new variant is considerably more transmissible than previous strains but not necessarily any more dangerous for those infected.

US health officials said last week that they believed it was already in circulation in the country.

Cases of the new variant have also been reported in several European countries as well as Canada, South Korea and Japan.

Read the full story here

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says he will be setting out changes to England’s tier restrictions in the House of Commons later.

Millions more people in England are expected to be placed under tougher coronavirus measures amid escalating case numbers.

"It is clear as we have seen from the data in the last few days that the number of infections is going up – that’s unfortunately not just happening in the London and the South East as it was in the last few weeks but it’s starting to happen elsewhere in the country," he said.

He says the government doesn’t "take these tiering decisions lightly" but the new fast-spreading coronavirus variant meant tougher measures were important.

Asked whether the government was considering a national lockdown, Hancock said "we introduced the tier system for a reason because not everywhere needs the same level of restrictions".

He added that everyone should think about reducing social contact and act as if we have the virus.

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Image source, PA Media

The NHS will now be able to significantly speed up the vaccination process.

There are already millions of doses of the Oxford vaccine in the country ready to go.

The move to a one-dose strategy will also have a major impact.

Within weeks the UK should have 1,500 local vaccination centres up and running - enabling in theory close to two million people a week to be vaccinated if supply can keep up.

That means by the end of March the majority of the people in nine priority groups could have been offered a jab.

Certainly the over-65s - nine in 10 Covid deaths have been seen in this age group - should have been done.

One dose does not offer as much protection as two doses clearly - but the evidence suggests it is effective at preventing serious illness from infection in the very least.

With rising infection rates and growing pressure on the NHS, the UK now has a clear route out of the worst of the pandemic and back to some form of normality.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast the first person to receive the vaccine will be on 4 January and he says there is "enough vaccine on order to vaccinate the whole population", excluding children.

He said that the 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine ordered by the government, combined with the 30 millions doses of the Pfizer vaccine meant that he could say "with confidence that we can vaccinate everyone except children" with two doses.

He said the government had been advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation that the order or priority for the vaccine should be the same as for the Pfizer vaccine.

The highest priority groups are residents in care homes, people over 80 and frontline health and social care workers.

He said they had also been advised that the government should prioritise having as many people as possible getting the first dose as possible which “will allow us to get protection to more people quickly”.

People will get their second dose after 12 weeks, he says, which will mean that over the first three months “we can get this jab into the arm of as many people who are vulnerable to this disease as possible”.

Prof Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, has just been speaking to the BBC’s Today programme about what he described as a "great moment in what has been a difficult year".

Prof Pollard hailed the approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab as an “astonishing achievement” in science and clinical research.

"This year with the pandemic has been like being in a blizzard. We’ve been really struggling uphill through snow drifts and with this icy wind in our faces. This morning we do have some respite with this good news and the warmth that that brings, and perhaps some hope from the future," he said.

But he said there is still "more work to do".

"It’s a triumphant moment but it’s not over yet," he told the BBC.

"Our colleagues in hospital are facing some real horrors caused by this virus. The next steps are critical."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine "is a really significant moment" in the fight against the virus.

He told BBC Breakfast that the vaccine was the way out of the pandemic and it "brings forward the date" at which the pandemic will end.

It was good news "for everybody", he said, and he also described the Oxford vaccine as a "real British success story".

He added that there was also good news from the findings that the vaccine provided some immunity around a fortnight after the first dose "which means we can really accelerate the number of people that will be protected".

We've got some reaction now from Oxford University and AstraZeneca, who joined up to create this new Covid-19 vaccine.

Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and chief investigator of the Oxford trial, said: "The regulator's assessment that this is a safe and effective vaccine is a landmark moment, and an endorsement of the huge effort from a devoted international team of researchers and our dedicated trial participants.

"Though this is just the beginning, we will start to get ahead of the pandemic, protect health and economies when the vulnerable are vaccinated everywhere, as many as possible as soon possible."

AstraZeneca said it aimed to supply millions of doses in the first quarter of next year as part of an agreement with the UK government to supply up to 100 million doses.

Its chief executive Pascal Soriot said: "Today is an important day for millions of people in the UK who will get access to this new vaccine.

"It has been shown to be effective, well-tolerated, simple to administer and is supplied by AstraZeneca at no profit."

Image source, Oxford University

UK shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has reacted to the approval of the Oxford vaccine on Twitter, calling it "good news" but urging a quick rollout.

"We've seen how more virus circulating means opportunities for variants to emerge. This is now a race against time,” he wrote.

"We need vaccination ramped up, especially for NHS staff urgently."

Image source, University of Oxford

Approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is a "game changer" in the’s UK's battle with coronavirus, says Prof Andrew Hayward, a scientist advising the government.

He told BBC Breakfast that it was "exactly what we need right now" as the UK is facing an "extraordinarily difficult situation" following the emergence of a fast-spreading variant of coronavirus.

"This has turned into a race between us and the virus and what we need to do is slow the virus down as much as we can as we get as many people vaccinated as possible."

He said the plan to give as many people as possible a first dose of the vaccine will give a reasonable proportion of protection, "particularly against severe disease".

He added that this would allow the UK to protect more people a lot more quickly.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock has hailed the approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, calling it "fantastic news".

He confirmed that rollout of the vaccine would begin on 4 January.

Image source, University of Oxford

The UK Department of Health and Social Care said it has accepted the recommendation the UK regulator MHRA "to authorise Oxford University/AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine for use".

A spokesperson said that after "rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data" MHRA has "concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness".

It said that the NHS had a clear vaccine delivery plan and it would now begin putting its extensive preparations into action to roll out the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine.

A statement added that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) – which advises the government on who to vaccinate first – had said the priority should be to give as many people in at-risk groups their first dose, rather than providing the required two doses in as short a time as possible.

Everyone will still receive their second dose and this will be within 12 weeks of their first, it added.

"From today the NHS across the UK will prioritise giving the first dose of the vaccine to those in the most high-risk groups."

Why this breaking news on the Oxford vaccine is particularly important for people living in the UK.

We’ll be bringing you all the latest news about the vaccine and other coronavirus developments on what is expected to be a very busy day. Here are the main headlines:

• The coronavirus vaccine designed by scientists at the University of Oxford has been approved for use in the UK.
• Millions more people in England are expected to be placed under tougher coronavirus restrictions amid escalating case numbers
• Health Secretary Matt Hancock is due to detail the changes to England's restrictions - which could be introduced within days - in the House of Commons after 14:30 GMT
• The UK reported a record 53,135 new Covid cases, external on Tuesday - the highest single day rise since mass testing began
• A "major incident" is declared by NHS and emergency services in Essex due to growing demand on hospitals and social care
• The US has reported its first case of the highly-infectious coronavirus variant that emerged in the UK in the state of Colorado
• A recently elected US lawmaker has died from Covid-19. Republican Luke Letlow, 41, is the first member of the US Congress to die from the disease
• And a study has shown that almost 5% of the people in the Chinese city of Wuhan - 500,000 people - may have been infected with Covid-19

Welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus outbreak. The UK is waking up to some good news this morning that it has approved a second coronavirus vaccine.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is the second jab deemed safe by UK regulators, paving the way for millions of vaccinations.

It is considered a game-changer as it does not have to be stored at very low temperatures like the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

The UK has ordered 100 million doses and can now start vaccinating millions more people.

Read the full story here.