Britain is preparing to become the first country to roll out the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine this week, initially making the shot available at hospitals before distributing stocks to doctors’ clinics, the government has said.

The first doses are set to be administered on Tuesday, with the National Health Service giving top priority to vaccinating the over-80s, frontline healthcare workers and care home staff and residents.

In total, Britain has ordered 40 million doses — enough to vaccinate 20m people in the country of 67m.

About 800,000 doses are expected to be available within the first week.