Boris Johnson has made a personal appeal to the over 70s and social care workers to book a Covid jab if they haven’t yet had one.

The Prime Minister made the plea during yesterday’s Downing Street press conference where he insisted “greats strides” were being made to vaccinate elderly and vulnerable people in the UK.

More than 13 million people have now had their first jab - or one in four adults.

But with the Government’s deadline of February 15 looming to vaccinate the 15 million considered most at risk to Covid, the Prime Minister made a personal plea for vulnerable people to contact the NHS and book a jab.

He said: “With less than a week to go until the target date of Monday 15, there’s no doubt we’ve made great strides, with just over 13 million people now vaccinated in our United Kingdom.

“But that still leaves nearly two million people, a population roughly twice the size of Birmingham, that we still hope to reach.

“Now is the moment to do it.”

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More than 90 per cent of everyone over 75 and care home residents have had their jab, according to Government figures.

Mr Johnson added: “The reason I make this appeal today for people to come forward in those groups to get vaccinated is not to hit some numerical target but to save lives, prevent serious illness and so the whole country can take another step on the long and hard road back to normality.”

The Prime Minister refused to be drawn on when people could start booking summer holidays and insisted he would give some answers when he reveals his ‘road-map’ out of lockdown on February 22.

The Government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, warned the easing of lockdown would be based on data.

He said there were still significant numbers of high-risk people who had not been vaccinated.

He added: “Those people remain at risk and so it’s important we go cautiously.”