Dr Hilary Jones has warned of a possible third wave ‘if we’re not careful’, despite the coronavirus vaccine being rolled out from today. As news broke that a 90-year-old grandma became the first person in the country to receive the jab, the Good Morning Britain doctor appealed to viewers on today’s programme not to become complacent.

Speaking to presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, Dr Hilary urged: ‘We’re not through this yet. We’ve got a weapon now but we have to give it a chance, so I appeal to everybody to just be careful and patient during this Christmas.

‘We’ve seen crowds of people flocking together for the sales pre-Christmas. We’ve seen people desperate to get out there and gather with their families in three households, which could be any number of people.’

He continued: ‘It’s going to be a huge mistake. We are facing a third wave if we’re not careful, in January and February because it will take several months for this vaccine to be rolled out to sufficient numbers of people to make a difference to the R number.’

The coronavirus vaccine is being administered from today marking the start of the NHS’ biggest ever mass vaccination programme.

It comes after the Pfizer and BioNTech jab was approved last week. The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer jab, enough to vaccinate 20 million people as people need to receive two doses.