The Prime Minister has said vaccinating the country's most vulnerable people will pave the way for restrictions to be eased.

Boris Johnson plunged the whole of England into a third lockdown last night due to concerns about rising Covid infections and pressure on the NHS.

With more than a million people receiving their first Covid vaccination, and the first Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs being rolled out in England on Monday, Mr Johnson said that "with a fair wind in our sails", it should be possible to vaccinate 13 million of the most vulnerable people by mid-February.

Top of the priority list are people who live and work in care homes, followed by people over the age of 80 and frontline health and social care workers, including NHS staff.

The first of two Pfizer jabs have been by carried out by GP's to the most vulnerable in and around Watford since late December, with Hertsmere's first vaccination hub opening this week.

This is the list of places appointment only Pfizer Covid vaccinations are being carried out in the Watford area

  • Watford Health Centre for practices in Watford town centre
  • Sheepcot Surgery for practices in North Watford
  • Colne Surgery for practices in Rickmansworth and Chorleywood
  • Bridgewater House for practices in Watford and Garston
  • Allum Hall in Borehamwood for practices in Hertsmere

GP practices are working through their patient lists and will contact people when it is their turn to be vaccinated.

Dr Simon Hodes, GP at Bridgewater Surgery in Watford, said: "The Covid vaccine programme is the largest vaccination campaign in NHS history. Locally, our practice teams across Watford have been working tirelessly to get all the elements in place, from fridges to parking signs, to ensure we have got a safe and efficient system for vaccinating patients, whilst maintaining all our usual service.

"You can help by waiting to be contacted by us and not ringing to ask for a vaccination appointment. Don’t worry – we will be getting in touch with all eligible patients.

"The entire medical profession is very excited to see this safe and effective vaccine arrive to help protect our patients. Hopefully this is the beginning of the final phase of the pandemic."

Professor Nilay Shah, at Imperial College London, said that with a great deal of co-ordination of manufacturing, logistics, rapid training of vaccination administration personnel and co-operation of patients, it should be possible to reach daily vaccination levels of 300,000 to 500,000 doses per day across England.

But this depended on everything going right every day, he added.

Prof Shah added: "If we take the top four groups, this would be very approximately 10 million people. Assuming that we will go for a prime and boost vaccination strategy, even if the gap may be longer, that implies 20 million vaccinations.

"At 400,000 doses per day, assuming we move to seven-days-a-week operation, that is 50 days which would get us to mid-Feb (for 100 per cent coverage).

"If the aim is for the first dose for the top four priority groups by mid-February, then we would need to hit 200,000 doses a day, again this is achievable but everything needs to go right every single day."