Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the approval of the Oxford vaccine was "fantastic news", and confirmed that the rollout would begin on January 4.

AstraZeneca said it aimed to supply millions of doses in the first quarter of next year as part of an agreement with the Government to supply up to 100 million doses.

Its chief executive Pascal Soriot said: "Today is an important day for millions of people in the UK who will get access to this new vaccine. It has been shown to be effective, well-tolerated, simple to administer and is supplied by AstraZeneca at no profit."

In a statement, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "This is a moment to celebrate British innovation – not only are we responsible for discovering the first treatment to reduce mortality for Covid-19, this vaccine will be made available to some of the poorest regions of the world at a low cost, helping protect countless people from this awful disease.

"It is a tribute to the incredible UK scientists at Oxford University and AstraZeneca whose breakthrough will help to save lives around the world.

"I want to thank every single person who has been part of this British success story. While it is a time to be hopeful, it is so vital everyone continues to play their part to drive down infections."

Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and chief investigator of the Oxford trial, said: "The regulator's assessment that this is a safe and effective vaccine is a landmark moment, and an endorsement of the huge effort from a devoted international team of researchers and our dedicated trial participants.

"Though this is just the beginning, we will start to get ahead of the pandemic, protect health and economies when the vulnerable are vaccinated everywhere, as many as possible as soon possible."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine means there is now a "route out" of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Hancock told Sky News: "I am now, with this approval this morning, highly confident that we can get enough vulnerable people vaccinated by the spring that we can now see the route out of this pandemic.

"It is going to be a difficult few weeks ahead.

"We can see the pressures right now on the NHS and it is absolutely critical that people follow the rules and do everything they can to stop the spread, particularly of the new variant of this virus that transmits so much faster.

"But we also know that there is a route out of this. The vaccine provides that route out. We have all just got to hold our nerve over the weeks to come."

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth tweeted: "Some good news. Now let's go hell for leather to get jabs rolled out.

"We've seen how more virus circulating means opportunities for variants to emerge.

"This is now a race against time.

"We need vaccination ramped up, especially for NHS staff urgently."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine meant the rollout of the vaccination programme could be accelerated.

Mr Hancock said the speed of delivery would depend on the speed at which the vaccine can be manufactured.

"The rollout will start on January 4 and will really accelerate into the first few weeks of next year," he told told Sky News.

"The NHS stands ready to deploy at the sort of pace that is needed to help us get out of this pandemic by the spring.

"The NHS will deliver the vaccine into people's arms as fast as it can be produced."

The approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is a "game-changer" a member of the Government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) has said.

Andrew Hayward, professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at University College London, told BBC Breakfast: "It's exactly what we need right now.

"We're facing an extraordinarily difficult situation with a step change in the transmissibility of the virus, which means we need a step change in our response.

"I think essentially what this has turned this into is a race between us and the virus, and we need to slow the virus down as much as we can whilst we get as many people vaccinated as possible."

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey tweeted: "This is a real moment of hope. The work done by scientists to create safe vaccines so quickly is amongst the greatest achievements of any generation.

"Now we need the Govt to get the virus under control and properly manage an urgent vaccine roll out."

The CBI business group welcomed the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine approval as "hugely positive news and a real feather in the cap for the UK life sciences sector".

Matthew Fell, chief UK policy director at the CBI, said: "It adds another weapon to the UK's pandemic arsenal, bringing us one step closer to returning to a more normal way of life.

"This is not the end of the battle, though. Rising infection rates and new strains mean tough precautions remain necessary in the short-term.

"Businesses understand this and continue to do their utmost to protect their staff and customers."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted: "It is truly fantastic news - and a triumph for British science - that the @UniofOxford/@AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use.

"We will now move to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible."

Professor Andrew Hayward said the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine not needing to be stored at the very cold temperatures required for the Pfizer vaccine would make "an enormous difference".

He told BBC Breakfast: "It means that all of the centres that would normally get involved in vaccination, all the GP practices, as well as more simple community centres, for example, can get involved in the vaccine.

"It means we can take the vaccine to where it's needed, rather than bringing people in to the limited places where we can deliver it.

"So it should make for a step change and it should also allow us to reach out to the most affected communities."

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: "Fantastic news. Thank you to everyone involved, from the scientists to the volunteers.

"We now need a national effort to get vaccinations delivered across the country."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is a "great British success story".

He told Times Radio: "This is a great British success story and the reason it matters so much is that this vaccine is easy to administer, it only needs to be stored at a normal fridge temperature so we can get it right out into GPs' surgeries, into care homes, and critically we've got 100 million doses coming so everybody can get vaccinated.

"Because of the way that it's been approved, because the second dose is only needed after 12 weeks, it means that we can accelerate the rollout of this."

Asked whether two million vaccinations per week was possible, Mr Hancock said: "That's absolutely deliverable by the NHS.

"The question is how fast the vaccine can be manufactured and the NHS stands ready across the whole UK to deliver this vaccine, along with the existing Pfizer vaccine, at the speed at which it can be manufactured.

"The NHS is ready, it's done a brilliant job so far of getting going with the first one, which of course is harder to administer, but we are ready to accelerate and we now can accelerate both because of the approval of this vaccine and also the fact that because protection comes from around two weeks after the first dose, it means that we can get out and vaccinate a whole load more people with their first dose very rapidly."

Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and chief investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial hailed the approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab as a "triumphant moment".

He told BBC's Radio Radio 4 Today programme: "This really is a great moment in what's been a difficult year, and definitely a moment here at Oxford, at the university, of pride in our team for this astonishing achievement in science and clinical research during the course of the year."

He added: "This year with the pandemic has been like being in a blizzard. We've been really struggling uphill through snow drifts and with this icy wind in our faces.

"And I think this morning we do have some respite with this good news and the warmth that that brings, and perhaps some hope for the future."

But he said the "blizzard is raging on" as healthcare staff in hospitals face "some real horrors caused by this virus".