Thursday, Britain announced the purchase of an additional 60 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, in order to expand the vaccination program to protect the most vulnerable people from the virus and the new mutated strains. Britain has now ordered a total of 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The British Minister of Health Matt Hancock said the doses had been secured to support a COVID-19 booster vaccination programme which is set to start in the autumn. 

He added that the biggest risk to Britain's rollout so far was the discovery of the new variants of the coronavirus.

"We're working on our plans for booster shots," the British Minister of Health Matt Hancock said.

"These further 60 million doses will be used, alongside others, as part of our booster programme from later this year, so we can protect the progress that we've all made."

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the UK confirmed 4,411,797 cases and 127,480 deaths.