Over 15 million people across the UK have been given their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, the vaccines minister has announced.
The figure, reached on Sunday, means the governent is likely to have clinched its target to vaccinate everyone in the top four priority groups.
Ministers had said they would offer a dose of the vaccine to everyone over 70 and everyone who was clinically extremely vulnerable by 15 February.
Front line health and social care workers, as well as care home residents and their staff are also thought to have been jabbed.
The 15 million milestone was thought to be a key indicator of the ambitious target set out by the prime minister on 4 January.
But it is not known how many people outside the top priority groups have been vaccinated too, in a bid to stop doses going to waste.
The NHS vaccine programme has been the fastest in Europe, with nearly half a million people a day getting jabbed over the last week.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said in a tweet: “15 million! Amazing team. We will not rest [until[ we offer the vaccine to the whole of phase one, the 1 to 9 categories of the most vulnerable and all over 50s by [the end of] April, and then all adults.”
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