Health bosses have issued a warning against being complacent after the first vaccine was approved for use in the UK.

The news the jab developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has been given the go-ahead from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has been met with both delight and a sound of caution.

Watch: Kent virologist professor Martin Michaelis gives his reaction to the news a vaccine has been approved

Kent and Medway still have some of the highest infection rates in the country - six areas are among the worst 20 in the UK.

The worry is high infection levels in the community will lead to further hospital admissions and cases in following days and weeks. Medway is still recording a rise of infections week-on-week - one of only three areas in the country to do so.

Meanwhile, other extremely severe areas of infection - Swale and Thanet which are first and fourth in the country respectively - are seeing the spread of the virus fall slightly.

Wilf Williams, head of strategic command for the Kent and Medway NHS pandemic response, said: "A vaccine being approved is great news and gives hope that we can get on top of the pandemic. But in Kent and Medway we have high infection rates and we cannot be complacent.

"We all need to keep working hard to break the chain of infection.

"Hands, face, space and all the requirements of being in Tier 3.

"Crucially, if you or someone in your household show symptoms of the virus, or are contacted by the Test and Trace services self-isolate straight away.

“The NHS across Kent and Medway has been working hard to prepare the vaccine programme.

"Everyone aged 18 and over will be offered the vaccine.

"In Kent and Medway that is around one million people."

The eagerly-awaited details of how the vaccine will be rolled out are yet to be revealed, with the NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group saying today that it would hopefully not be too much longer before it could share some information.

Mr Williams added: "There will be lots more news coming in the weeks and months ahead.

"People will be invited for a vaccine based on a national priority list.

"Please be patient and avoid contacting GP surgeries or other services with general questions about the vaccine and when it will be available to you."

Mr Williams' message about following the rules was echoed by the director of public health at Medway Council, James Williams.

He said: "It is encouraging that a Covid-19 vaccine has been approved and we will continue to offer our support to NHS colleagues who will be leading the rollout of the vaccine.

"However, we cannot be complacent and residents must continue to follow the new Tier 3 restrictions.

"The restrictions are in place to slow the spread of coronavirus and everyone has a responsibility to act now to help get us back to the things we love sooner."

The government said first vaccines would start being issued early next week but the wider vaccination programme is expected to last into spring 2021.

Professor Martin Michaelis, a mollecular medicine expert at the University of Kent, welcomed the vaccine news but warned that Covid would not "simply disappear".

“Vaccines will be a game changer," he said.

"For a long time it hasn’t been clear whether they’ll be effective, now we know that they are.

"Obviously there are still many questions so I don’t expect Covid-19 as a problem to simply disappear.

"We don’t know how long immunity will last, obviously we probably also have to expect that the virus will find ways to escape the immune response. So, we will probably have new viruses for which we need additional vaccines.

"But, just the simple fact that we have vaccines now should make the whole situation much more manageable.

“It took almost 20 years to identify the hepatitis C virus, it took two years to identify HIV, it took six months to identify the first SARS coronavirus in 2002/ 03 and today it takes hours.

"The time the sample needs to get into the lab is the longest time - with new sequencing techniques we are very quick.”

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