A Covid-19 booster in the autumn and then annual vaccinations are very probable, Britain’s vaccine deployment minister has said, as countries race to administer injections in the face of new variants.

Britain has already provided nearly 11.5 million first doses of Covid-19 vaccines and is on track to meet a target to vaccinate everyone in the top most vulnerable groups by mid-February.

“We see very much probably an annual or a booster in the autumn and then an annual [vaccination], in the way we do with flu vaccinations where you look at what variant of virus is spreading around the world,” Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.