Health Secretary Matt Hancock has paid tribute the NHS, saying that pressure on the frontline is currently "relentless".

Speaking at today's Downing Street news conference he said, on average there have been 37,258 cases per day in the last week. There are 37,899 people in hospital.

And he said there have been 592 further deaths.

Mr Hancock said 78.7 per cent of all over-80s have received their first vaccine dose - as there are 'early signs' lockdown is working.

He added coronavirus rates are falling in some parts of the country, such as London and Scotland. 

Mr Hancock said progress towards vaccinating the top four priority groups by February 15 is “on track”.

He said that 6.6 million had now received a jab, more than 1 in 9 of the adult population, and in the last week 2.5 million got a vaccine, at a rate of more than 250 people per minute.

And, he said, 78.7 per cent of over-80s have received a jab.

He added a further 32 large-scale vaccination centres have opened.

He thanked the 80,000 people who have volunteered to help, "standing in car parks in the freezing cold” for eight hours a day. 

Hancock warned the threat posed by the new variant, which may by 70 per cent more infectious, and may also be more deadly.

He added: "We must continue to be careful. We’re making progress with the vaccine, and the end is in sight. We cannot put that progress at risk."

Amid concerns of increasing support for Scottish independence, Mr Hancock insisted the “UK is stronger together in the fight against” coronavirus.

He told press conference that the Scottish Ambulance Service put out an appeal for extra help over the weekend and other nations “stepped forward”.

“Our health systems across the UK routinely work closely together offering support when it’s needed and from vaccines to ambulance services we are stronger together. And the UK is stronger together in the fight against this pandemic,” Mr Hancock said.

He said there are “early signs that the actions we are taking are working”, with the rise in case numbers slowing and falling in some areas such as London and Scotland.

Dr Susan Hopkins, Covid-19 strategic response director at Public Health England, said the UK was still “far away” from achieving herd immunity.

She told a Downing Street press conference: “One in 10 people having immunity is far away from where we need to be.

“Herd immunity is a word we use to describe the immunity we get from vaccination.

“The big job here is to roll out the vaccination to those individuals first of all, to those who are high risk of death and hospitalisation and then to the rest of the population.

“Once we have done that, then we will have herd immunity.

“We should not be focusing on getting infection and the consequences of this infection, getting us out of this right now.”

Reaching a decision on when to lift lockdown restrictions was “difficult”, the Health Secretary said.

He highlighted that there were 37,000 people in hospital with coronavirus, which he said was “almost twice as many as at the first peak back in April”.

He also noted there are “more people on ventilators than at any time in this whole pandemic”.

He added: “The pressure on the NHS remains huge and we’ve got to get that case rate down. Of course I understand the yearning people have to get out of this.

“The thing is that we have to look at the facts on the ground and we have to monitor those facts.

“And of course, everybody wants to have a timeline for that, but I think most people understand why it is difficult to put a timeline on it because it’s a matter of monitoring the data, and in fact this is a state-contingent and not a time-contingent question.”