One in three adults have now had a coronavirus vaccine - the Health Secretary announced today

He told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show: "As of this morning, one in three adults of all adults in the whole country have been vaccinated - it's great news.

"We are confident that the vaccine works effectively against both the old strain that has been here for some time and the so-called Kent variant, which is now the main source of infection in this country.

"We do not yet have the confidence that the vaccine is as effective against the South Africa variant and the variant first seen in Brazil, but we do think that the measures that we have taken - both the enhanced contact tracing and the measures at the border - are reducing those new variants here."

Mr Hancock said the latest data showed "around a dozen" new cases of the South African variant had been found in the country. In total, there have been around 300 cases, he said.

It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged that all adults in the UK should be offered a coronavirus vaccine by the end of July.

The PM said the accelerated vaccine rollout would help protect the most vulnerable sooner and enable the easing of some restrictions.

Ministers had set a target to offer vaccines to all adults by September, with an aim to reach all those aged 50 and over in the first nine JCVI priority groups by May.

It comes on the day Mr Hancock has said the Government believed it had the vaccine supplies to meet the new target of offering all adults a jab by the end of July.

“We now think that we have the supplies to be able to do that, we can see the NHS and all of those partners and all of those working on this have been able to deliver jabs at about half-a-million a day, which is an incredible effort.

“So, collectively, the whole team now needs to focus on this renewed target of all vulnerable groups, all those over 50 by April 15 and then we will keep rolling out and make sure that all adults get access to the jab.”

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