More than two-thirds of eligible adults have so far received their Covid booster jabs, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced.

It said today that 25,130,453 over-18s who are three months on from their second dose have already been given a booster in England, after the online booking service opened to eligible adults last Wednesday.

This follows a record-breaking week, with more than 1.5 million boosters reported over the weekend – including a record 830,000 on Saturday – and more than 5.3 million between Monday 13 and Monday 20 December.

Boosters have been given to more than four in five over-50s, as well as around two in five of those eligible in their 30s, the DHSC added.

It urged people to come forward over the festive people, with a third of vaccine appointment slots ‘still up for grabs’ this week.

Health secretary Sajid Javid said the achievement is ‘testament’ to the hard work of NHS staff in delivering the accelerated vaccination programme.

NHS England primary care medical director and deputy lead for the Covid vaccination programme Dr Nikki Kanani added: ‘It is incredible to see how far we have come in such a short space of time.

‘I cannot thank NHS staff and volunteers enough for their phenomenal effort delivering millions of boosters in the last week at such speed – their huge efforts have meant two out of three adults are now benefiting from extra protection ahead of the festive period.’

The NHS in England has so far administered more than 107 million Covid jab doses since the start of the vaccination programme last December, including more than 25 million boosters.

Meanwhile, the national booking service yesterday opened for 12-15s to get their second dose of the vaccine, after more than 1.3 million took up the offer of a first dose so far. 

A version of this story first appeared on our sister website, Pulse.