The Prime Minister believes 'that there will be continuous supply of the Covid vaccine' after recent messages from the NHS for over-50s to get jabbed while supply is known.

Boris Johnson made his comments following a tour of the AstraZeneca campus in Macclesfield, one of the leading companies producing Covid jabs.

It comes after NHS leaders locally called on over-50s to book vaccination appointments sooner rather than later in order to avoid disappointment in the future.

The Prime Minister told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I think that there will be continuous supply of the vaccine. The vaccine task force under Kate Bingham ages ago made some very far-sighted arrangements to make sure that we had continuous supply of a number of different vaccines.

"Don't forget we've got the Scottish vaccine coming on stream later, we've got Moderna, we're going to have Jansen, we have another 40 million doses of Pfizer coming down the track.

"I think the total amount is 540 million doses overall but we are still on target to deliver all the one to nine groups by April 15 to get their first jab and all adults by the end of July.

"AstraZeneca have played a remarkable role in the UK and around the world in developing a room temperature vaccine which is absolutely extraordinary."

Mr Johnson's visit to Cheshire was to announce £380 million round of funding in 'a new advanced medicine manufacturing facility and Global Medicines Packaging Centre'.

While on his visit, he also stated that the UK was on track to stick to the lockdown easing roadmap — but did not rule out the possibility of a regional tier system in the future.

He said: "We look at the data from around the country and in the North West, and North East, where it's been a little bit stubborn in the last year or so, but we see nothing in the data to make us think we will have to deviate from the roadmap.

"We look very carefully at the data across the country — there have actually been times where the decline in the North West has been faster than other parts of the country.

"At the moment we think the roadmap is the right one, it's clear, and we're sticking to it for the whole country."