A third Covid jab will be offered to everyone over the age of 50 in a bid to wipe out the virus by Christmas, it has been reported.
Trials are said to be under way to both research specially modified vaccines to tackle new variants and analyse the effects of a third shot as part of a course of inoculations.
The research is said to be supervised by Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England. In the UK three different vaccines are currently being used to protect against coronavirus - Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna.
As part of the mass inoculation effort nearly 35 million first doses of a Covid vaccine have been given, as well as 15.6 million second doses administered.