An extra 60 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine have been secured by the UK government to help support the booster coronavirus vaccination programme beginning from the Autumn.

The government is preparing for a booster programme based on clinical need to ensure people have the strongest possible protection against the virus. The additional Pfizer/BioNTech jabs will be used alongside other approved vaccines for the booster programme.

The government will publish further details on the booster programme in due course and the final policy will be informed by advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and the results of clinical trials studying the use of different combinations of approved coronavirus vaccines.

Recent data from Public Health England shows that one dose of a coronavirus vaccine reduces household transmission of the virus by up to half.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Our vaccination programme is bringing back our freedom, but the biggest risk to that progress is the risk posed by a new variant. We’re working on our plans for booster shots, which are the best way to keep us safe and free while we get this disease under control across the whole world. These further 60 million doses will be used, alongside others, as part of our booster programme from later this year, so we can protect the progress that we’ve all made.”

Health services across the UK have now administered a total of 47,540,984 million vaccines between 8 December and 27 April, including 33,959,908 million people with their first dose (64.5 per cent of all adults) and 13,581,076 million with their second (25.8 per cent of all adults).