THE coronavirus vaccine designed by scientists at the University of Oxford has been approved for use in the UK reports the BBC.

It will lead to a massive expansion in the UK’s immunisation campaign – aimed at getting life back to normal.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the rollout will start on 4 January “and will really accelerate into the first few weeks of next year”.

The UK has ordered 100 million doses from the manufacturer AstraZeneca – enough to vaccinate 50 million people. 

The approval, by the medicines regulator, means the vaccine is both safe and effective. 

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was designed in the first months of 2020, tested on the first volunteer in April, and has since been through large-scale clinical trials involving thousands of people.

It has been developed at a pace that would have been unthinkable before the pandemic.