French drugs firm 'days away' from making 60million doses of Britain's FOURTH coronavirus vaccine

The Government is increasingly bullish about the speed of Britain's vaccination drive and has privately set an ambitious target of giving every adult the jab by the end of June, it was claimed last night. The injection of vaccine optimism came as: The UK recorded another 1,295 coronavirus deaths and 41,346 new cases on Saturday - as fatalities continue to rise by more than 1,000 for the fifth day in a row; GPs are throwing away leftover vaccines rather than give patients second doses or use them on staff because of local NHS leaders' strict instructions; Laurence Fox sparked a row after posting a photo of himself on social media wearing a coronavirus mask 'exemption badge' that he ordered from Amazon; Britons in their 70s could start getting Covid jabs as early as next week as the vaccination programme continued at pace amid fears both Brazilian variants of the virus are 'likely' already in the UK; Police fined three people from different households for breaking coronavirus lockdown after their VW Golf was spotted travelling at 90mph in the snow on the M62; Rishi Sunak has rejected a proposal for an emergency wealth tax to recover the staggering £280billion the Government has spent so far on the coronavirus pandemic; Britain has secured supply of 60 million doses at a cost of €470 million – enough to vaccinate 30 million people. Resident Kate Stewart receives an injection of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine from Dr Jess Harvey at the Lady Forester Community nursing home in Wenlock, Shropshire The Government is increasingly bullish about the speed of Britain's vaccination drive and has privately set an ambitious target of giving every adult the jab by the end of June, it was claimed last night French drugs firm Valneva is just 'days away' from kick-starting manufacture of its jab on British soil, The Mail on Sunday can reveal SAGE expert warns lifting lockdown restrictions in February would be a 'disaster' Removing coronavirus restrictions at the end of next month would be a 'disaster' and put 'enormous pressure' on the NHS, a leading epidemiologist has warned. The Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre will add significant firepower to Britain's immunisation infrastructure when it launches later this year Construction of the £158million project was fast-tracked by the Government when Covid-19 hit British shores early last year Record 324,233 people received their Covid jab on Friday in vaccination milestone By Anna Mikhailova and Stephen Adams for the Mail on Sunday A record 324,233 more people received their Covid-19 jab last Friday, further boosting hopes that Britain will hit its target of 15 million vaccinated by mid-February. As the total number of injections soared to 3.56 million – meaning more people in the UK have received the first dose of the jab than have had Covid – Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This is another important milestone, every jab is another vulnerable person protected or a brilliant hero on the frontline protected.’ The daily rate of jabs more than doubled between Monday and Friday.