NEWS that a Covid vaccine has been approved for use in the UK, and could be available from as soon as next week, has been welcomed in Dorset - with the council's health portfolio holder declaring: "This is the hope we need before Christmas."

The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, which has been shown in studies to be 95 per cent effective and works in all age groups.

The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine, enough to vaccinate 20 million people with two doses, given 21 days apart.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said 800,000 doses of the jab will arrive next week, with millions more arriving in the coming weeks.

BioNTech’s Sean Marett said the UK was likely to receive at least five million doses of vaccine by the end of year.

Councillor Laura Miller, Dorset Council portfolio holder for adult social care and health, said: "This is really positive news and it gives people hope just before Christmas which is something we all really need this year.

"We do just need to be conscious of the pressure this is going to put on care home workers as the logistical implications of rolling out the vaccine to care home residents will be challenging.

"People with relatives and loved ones in care home need to be patient as this will not happen overnight, but nonetheless, this is a great way to finish the year."

Mr Hancock said, until vaccines were rolled out, people needed to stick to the rules, saying: “We’ve got to get from here to there and we’ve got to keep people safe in the meantime.”

There would be “three modes of delivery” of the vaccine, with hospitals, mass vaccination centres and GPs and pharmacists offering the jab to those most in need, he added.

“Fifty hospitals across the country are already set up and waiting to receive the vaccine as soon as it’s approved, so that can now happen.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said the MHRA had approved the jab after “months of rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data by experts” from the regulator.

He said they have concluded that the vaccine has “met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness”.

Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS in England, said the vaccination programme would be the “largest-scale vaccination campaign in our country’s history”.

In a statement, he said: “This is an important next step in our response to the coronavirus pandemic and hospitals will shortly kick off the first phase of the largest-scale vaccination campaign in our country’s history.

“The NHS has a proven track record of delivering large-scale vaccinations from the winter flu jab to BCG and, once the final hurdles are cleared and the vaccine arrives in England’s hospitals, health service staff will begin offering people this ground-breaking jab in a programme that will expand to cover the whole country in the coming months.”