MATT Hancock will brief the nation on plans to deliver the Covid-19 vaccines this afternoon.

The Health Secretary will hold a Downing Street press conference at 5pm as seven mass vaccination sites acoss England open today.

Vaccinations against coronavirus are to be ramped up but pleas have been made to the public to stick to the lockdown rules to prevent avoidable deaths.

Yesterday, he did not rule out strengthening current lockdown restrictions and told the BBC's Andrew Marr that the NHS was under 'very serious pressure'.

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It comes as almost 55,000 new cases were reported in the UK and the number of deaths after a positive test passed 80,000.

While hundreds of vaccines are under development worldwide, three have been approved for the UK.

First came the Pfizer/NioNTech jab, then the Oxford/AstraZeneca, and last week, the third, made by US firm Moderna.

In total, the UK has ordered around 370 million doses of vaccines.

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