The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine that provides up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness and is safe to be rolled out.

The UK has already ordered 40 million doses of the jab - enough to vaccinate 20 million people. The first doses are already on their way to the UK, with 800,000 due in the coming days.

Care homes stuff and elderly people in care homes will be on the priority list for the vaccination followed by over-80s and health and care staff.

Despite the great news and overwhelming public excitement, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged everyone not to get "carried away with over optimism or falling into the naive belief that our struggle is over".

The Prime Minister commented that while the "searchlights of science" had created a working vaccine, significant logistical challenges remained.

The Pfizer/BioNTech jab is the fastest vaccine to go from concept to reality that is estimated to take only 10 months to follow the same steps that usually take 10 years.

According to Mr Hancock doses will be rolled out as quickly as they can be made by Pfizer in Belgium with the first load next week and then "several millions" throughout December.

As soon as the vaccine arrives, it will be sent straight to major hospitals who have the ultra-cold facilities to store it.

From there it can be moved just once - and when it is, it must be kept in batches of 1,000.

That means sending it out to care homes, where there may be only a few dozen residents in some places, would lead to a huge amount of vaccine being wasted.

Because of that, the NHS, which is in charge of distributing the vaccine, will run clinics from hospitals at first.

This will allow NHS and care home staff to get immunised first as well as, perhaps, some of the older age groups who come into hospital.

It looks like it will not be until much more of the Pfizer vaccine is available or the Oxford University one, which is easier to distribute, is approved that care home residents will be able to get it.

The bulk of the rollout across the UK will be next year, Mr Hancock said, adding: "2020 has been just awful and 2021 is going to be better."