Britain has secured access to 90 million doses of two “promising” coronavirus vaccines, AFP quoted the government as saying on Friday, taking its total orders of potential Covid-19 vaccines to nearly 350 million doses.

The country has struck agreements to buy 60 million doses from US biotech firm Novavax, and another 30 million doses from Janssen pharmaceuticals, which is part of US giant Johnson & Johnson.

The orders follow previous deals reached with four other companies, including BioNTech, Pfizer and Valneva, and mean Britain has agreed access to four different vaccine types being produced by six firms.

“Since we don't know if any of these vaccines are going to work, we think it's important to have a spread of risk across the different types,” Kate Bingham, Head of the UK Vaccines Task Force, told AFP.

“We do need a broad portfolio of different vaccines because I don't think there will be a single vaccine that will be suitable for everybody.” The new agreements include co-funding a “ground-breaking global clinical study” of the Janssen vaccine, the government said.