PEOPLE aged between 45 and 50 are being invited to book an appointment to get their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as the NHS moves to the next stage of the rollout.

This comes as the Prime Minister urged people to continue to 'exercise restraint' as beer gardens were packed and shoppers flocked to high streets after the latest round of the Government’s lockdown restrictions were lifted in England on Monday.

Boris Johnson said that although vaccines had helped, lockdown restrictions had done 'the bulk of the work' in reducing Covid-19 infections.

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The start of Phase Two of the vaccination programme, which involves offering vaccines to healthy adults aged under 50, came after the Government met its target of offering the vaccine to all those in the highest risk groups.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) insisted Johnson & Johnson's decision to delay the rollout of its vaccine in Europe would not derail the UK’s programme to offer a jab to all adults by the end of July.

Mr Johnson said: "It is great that we have managed to achieve the target of getting everyone in the one to nine groups vaccinated by the deadline, by the timetable – a little bit ahead actually, 32 million people now have got their first dose, which is terrific.

"We are going now to the 45-49 group."