A snap poll by YouGov after the vaccine's approval found one in five Britons are not confident at all or not very confident that it is safe - mirroring concerns of The Northern Echo readers when asked whether they would get a vaccine.

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Of the 5,321 British adults surveyed by YouGov, 27 per cent say they are very confident Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is safe and 43 per cent are fairly confident while 11 per cent are not very confident and 9 per cent are not confident at all.

On Wednesday, December 2, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said the jab is safe to be rolled out and Pfizer said that doses are already on their way to the UK, with 800,000 due in the coming days.

YouGov results based on region

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the NHS will contact people about jabs and later said he would take the jab live on air with Piers Morgan Good Morning Britain.

The public is more united on this front, with 66 per cent supporting the idea vs 12 per cent who oppose.

The positive news has also not improved Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s popularity, however, with a different YouGov data following the announcement showing that just 35 per cent hold a favourable view of the prime minister, compared to 54 per cent who say unfavourable.

These numbers are essentially unchanged on the previous poll from mid-November, when 36 per cent said they had a favourable opinion of Johnson and 56 per cent an unfavourable one.