Covid vaccine: More than 20 million people in UK have now received first dose

‘What an achievement for February 2021,’ says vaccines minister

More than 20 million people in the UK have now received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, the health secretary has said.

Matt Hancock posted a video on his Twitter account with the announcement and thanked “every single person who’s come forward to get the jab”.

He said: “I’m absolutely delighted that over 20 million people have now been vaccinated across the UK – it’s absolutely fantastic.

“I want to thank every single person who’s come forward to get the jab because we know with increasing confidence that the jab protects you, it protects your community and it also is the route out of all of this for all of us.”

Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, also celebrated the news, tweeting: “BINGO! One score over 20,000,000 people have had the vaccination (1st dose). What an achievement for February 2021. What a team! Proud to be with you on this journey.”

The figure for the number of people getting their first dose of a vaccine on Saturday stood at 19.6 million.

NHS England has said that another two million people, aged between 60 and 63, are about to receive invitations for them to get vaccinated.

This next cohort will begin getting letters from Monday explaining how they can make an appointment to get a jab.

Professor Stephen Powis, the NHS national medical director, said: “The NHS vaccination programme, the biggest in the health service’s history and fastest in Europe, goes from strength to strength.

“I would like to thank my colleagues across the NHS, along with all the volunteers and others working on the programme, for their hard work which has seen more than 17 million jabs given in a matter of weeks.

“I would urge anyone who has been invited to take up the offer – it doesn’t matter when you were invited you can still come forward and protect yourself and others.”