A new online tool has been developed allowing people in the UK to discover when they are likely to be offered the coronavirus vaccine. 

The Omnicalculator website now features a ‘Vaccine Queue Calculator’ for people wondering how long they may have to wait before getting the jab. 

It allows people to input their age and other basic health details to calculate their place in the queue. 

The tool assumes there will be a vaccination rate of 1,000,000 a week and an uptake of 70.6%, and is therefore able to predict a date range for when it’s most likely a user will be vaccinated. 

The calculator is based on the Government’s vaccine priority list which starts with care home residents and moves through various groups including those aged 80 and over and the clinically extremely vulnerable.

Mass vaccination for the general population is not expected to get under way until the summer and full ‘herd immunity’ may not be achieved until 2021.

The calculator’s creators said: ‘Omni’s vaccine queue calculator will estimate for you how many people are ahead of you in the queue to get a Covid vaccine in the UK. It also predicts how long you might have to wait to get your vaccine. By using our tool, you’ll have a better idea of when you can expect to get vaccinated.’

Yesterday, The Government announced more than 137,000 people in the UK had received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine in the first week of the ‘largest vaccination programme in British history’.

Speaking in the House of Lords today, health minister Lord Bethell said it would take until at least the spring before all high-risk groups had been offered a jab.

Peers have warned ministers about ‘over-promising’ on Covid-19 vaccinations as the jabs are rolled out across the country.

Labour’s Lord Harris of Haringey said this could fuel the belief that the coronavirus crisis was over.

The Lord Speaker Lord Fowler declared he was about to receive the jab. He told peers it is ‘not an appointment I wish to miss’ and urged others to follow suit.

Speaking as the House prepared to break for Christmas, he said the start of the vaccination programme marked ‘a new chapter in the fight against the virus’.

Meanwhile, Prince Charles has said that he is ‘way down the list’ for his own injection and would have to wait.

The Royal made the comments as he visited a vaccination centre at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in Gloucester with the Duchess of Cornwall. The pair were there to meet with front line health workers administering and receiving the Pfizer vaccine.

Charles told staff: ‘I think I am way down the list and will have to wait. I think I’ll have to wait for the AstraZeneca one before it gets to my turn. I’m some way down the list.”

The prince also explained that as he had suffered with Covid-19, he had antibodies for the virus.

Experts have said very high levels of vaccine uptake are needed to completely stop transmission of coronavirus.

Addressing the Scottish Parliament, Professor Wei Shen Lim, of the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said around 70% to 80% of the population need to be immunised in order for the UK to reach ‘herd immunity’.

Another JCVI member said it is difficult to say when this point will be reached, but it may not be until the early part of 2021.

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