All vulnerable Britons - including everyone over the age of 50 - could be vaccinated by the spring in a major "chink of hope", the NHS chief executive.
That amounts to 22 million people being inoculated in just weeks as the country faces down a third wave of coronavirus infections with hospitalisations having now surpassed the April peak.
With the UK's lab-confirmed cases hitting a high of 41,385 yesterday, alongside 357 more deaths recorded - up 66 percent in a week - Sir Simon Stevens has offered some optimism going into 2021.
He admitted many people are "understandably feeling anxious, frustrated and tired" as the pandemic rumbles on across the country and Europe.