The Health Secretary said today’s rollout of a coronavirus vaccine shows there is ‘light at the end of the tunnel’, but warned the country not to let its guard down.

Matt Hancock said restrictions can be lifted once enough vulnerable people have had the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, but he urged people to ‘stick together and follow the rules’ as the virus continues to run rampant.

Margaret Keenan, 90, was the first person in the world to receive the vaccine at 6.31am today in Coventry, marking the start of the NHS’ biggest ever mass vaccination programme.

Watching the moment she received the injection, Hancock told Sky News: ‘I’m feeling quite emotional actually watching those pictures.

‘It has been such a tough year for so many people and finally we have our way through it – our light at the end of the tunnel as so many people are saying.

‘And just watching Margaret there – it seems so simple having a jab in your arm, but that will protect Margaret and it will protect the people around her.

‘And if we manage to do that in what is going to be one of the biggest programmes in NHS history, if we manage to do that for everybody who is vulnerable to this disease then we can move on.’

Medical Director for NHS England Professor Stephen Powis also says he felt emotional watching Margaret receive the jab.

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘I can’t tell you just how much emotion there was in that vaccination centre.’

Professor Powis said it was a ‘truly historic day’ and ‘a turning point in this pandemic’.

Despite the big step forward, on what Hancock has dubbed ‘V-Day’, the majority of the population won’t receive the vaccine just yet, with over-80s on the priority list, along with care home residents and staff.

Social distancing measures and other coronavirus measures still apply, with warnings of some regions being moved into tougher tier three rules next week.

While UK regulators approving a vaccine is a promising step forward, the Health Secretary warned the nation is not out of the woods just yet.

He said: ‘It’s great news that we are the first country in the world to have this clinically authorised and being able to roll out this programme.

‘And when enough people who are vulnerable to Covid-19 have been vaccinated then, of course, we can lift the restrictions. We think that will be in the spring.

‘It’s very important for everyone watching that whilst we vaccinate people – and we will do that at the pace at which the manufacturers can produce the vaccine – whilst we vaccinate people and whilst we get the second dose in, we’ve got to hold our nerve, we’ve got to stick together and we’ve got to follow the rules.

‘It is no good everybody relaxing now – we’ve got to hold firm until the vaccination programme has reached enough vulnerable people so that we don’t have people dying from coronavirus in the number that we do today.’

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