Government Health Secretary Matt Hancock has this morning (Wednesday) announced the approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

He has called it “fantastic news” and a 'moment of hope'.

It will rollout from January 4.

The UK has ordered 100 million doses from the manufacturer AstraZeneca. 

It comes as cases continue to rise sharply on the Isle of Wight after the discovery of a new variant of coronavirus in the UK - which spreads more quickly.

Mr Hancock said: “The rollout will start on January 4 and will really accelerate into the first few weeks of next year.

Speaking to Sky News, he said: “The NHS stands ready to deploy at the sort of pace that is needed to help us get out of this pandemic by the spring.

“The NHS will deliver the vaccine into people’s arms as fast as it can be produced.”

AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot said the company will be able to ramp up production of the coronavirus vaccine “very rapidly”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it will be able to deliver up to two million doses a week.

He said: “We are aligning our delivery schedule with the Government so we can progressively ramp up the vaccination programme,” he said.

“We are going to start doing this and ramp up the deliveries over the next two to three weeks. We are going to be able to do that very rapidly in the first and second week of January.

“We will start delivering this week – maybe today or tomorrow we will be shipping our first doses.

“The vaccination will start next week and we will get to one million a week and beyond that very rapidly.

“We can go to two million. In January we will already possibly be vaccinating several million people and by the end of the first quarter we are going to be in the tens of millions already.”

Meanwhile, a Covid-19 tier review is expected later.

The Isle of Wight has been in Tier Three since Boxing Day.

Yesterday, the Isle of Wight Council Leader Dave Stewart yesterday warned Islanders 'keep ourselves and our family safe - hands face space - take no risks.'