People aged 45 or over in England will now be invited to get a Covid ***, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.
The vaccination programme would then move on to everyone aged 40 or over "in line with supplies", he added.
Appointments can be made on
the NHS booking website, which temporarily crashed on Tuesday morning when it opened up to the new age group.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also confirmed
over-45s would start to get invites in Scotland this week.
Unlike in England, appointments will be allocated and there are no plans to introduce an online booking service.
In
Northern Ireland, people aged 40-45 are eligible to get a Covid vaccine, while in some areas in Wales 40-49 year-olds are being invited.
All over-50s and those in high-risk groups in the UK have been offered a first dose of the vaccine.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that coronavirus infections and deaths will start to rise again as restrictions were eased.
He said that although the vaccination programme had helped reduce the numbers, "the bulk of the work in reducing the disease has been done by the lockdown" and he urged people to be "cautious".
However, he said he could not see any reason to change England's roadmap out of lockdown.
Mr Johnson added that he was "very confident" about the UK's vaccine supplies.
Ministers have met their target of offering a first dose to the top nine priority groups by 15 April and Mr Hancock said the government was "on track" to offer a vaccine to everyone aged 18 or over by the end of July.
The UK is moving into phase two of the vaccination programme - which involves offering vaccines to healthy adults under the age of 50.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Hancock said more than 40 million doses of vaccines had been delivered across the UK, which he called "a remarkable achievement".
Latest figures show more than 32 million people in the UK have had their first vaccine dose, while more than 7.6 million people are fully vaccinated.
The health secretary also confirmed there would be age-based prioritisation for the rest of the vaccine rollout, based on advice from the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
There are an estimated 3.7 million people in England aged 45 to 49.
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Covid: People 45 or over in England invited to book vaccine - BBC News