The UK is on track to meet its target of offering a vaccine to every adult by September, and beating that would be a "bonus", the foreign secretary said.
Dominic Raab reiterated that the plan was to deliver 15 million jabs by mid-February and 17 million more by spring.
Asked about reports that all adults could get a jab by the end of June, he told the BBC: "If it can be done more swiftly, that's a bonus."
It comes as NHS England's head says hospitals are under "extreme pressure".
Mr Raab told the Andrew Marr Show that he was not aware of any delays to supplies from manufacturers Pfizer and AstraZeneca and said he was "confident we have the flexibility" to deliver enough doses.
"It is an enormous challenge. We are meeting it," he said. "But we take nothing for granted."
Saturday's figures showed a further 324,233 people received their first of two vaccine doses, taking the total above 3.5 million.
More people have now been vaccinated than have had positive tests since the pandemic began, with 10 more mass vaccination sites due to open in England on Monday.
Mr Raab said the risk that new variants could prove resistant to vaccines or more deadly meant the UK had to take the "precautionary approach" of requiring all travellers to quarantine on arrival from Monday, closing the travel corridors which previously been exempt.
"We don't want to find in two or three weeks time that our vaccine roll out is imperilled because we haven't taken the precautionary measures on travel corridors," he said.
Checks by Border Force on the passenger locator forms filled out on arrival would be increased, Mr Raab said, as would the follow-up calls by Public Health England intended to ensure people were isolating for up to 10 days.
Asked whether the UK would introduce quarantine hotels to ensure people maintained their isolation, he said all potential measures were under review but there was a challenge in the "workability" of the proposal.
'Extreme pressure'
NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens told the BBC some hospitals would open for vaccinations 24 hours a day, seven days a week on a trial basis in the next 10 days.
But he said hospitals and staff were under "extreme pressure", saying the pandemic was a "unique event" in the NHS's 72-year history.
Someone was being admitted to hospital with coronavirus every 30 seconds, Sir Simon said, and since Christmas patient numbers had risen by 15,000 - the equivalent of 30 full hospitals.
It means there are 75% more Covid-19 patients in hospital than there were in the April peak, the NHS chief executive said.
Although there were promising signs infection rates were falling, he said they were still too high and rising in some areas and age groups, including the over-60s.
He said the number of critical care beds had been increased by 50% since the first wave of the pandemic but a "very small number" of patients were still having to be transferred between regions when hospitals were full.
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There were sometimes three patients for every nurse in a critical care unit rather than the one-to-one ratio normally expected, he said. But they were receiving the "highest quality care possible".
About 53,000 NHS staff are currently off work due to the virus, he added.
Sir Simon said that people were now being vaccinated at a rate "four times faster" than they were getting new coronavirus infections - at 140 vaccinations a minute.
"But that ratio, we'll only be able to hold the line if people continue to do the right thing and prevent the transmission of coronavirus," he said.
He said expected 1.5 million people to have received a first dose by the end of Sunday, compared with one million in each of the two previous weeks.
Asked about suggestions that some vaccination centres were having to throw away leftover doses, he said: "The guidance from the chief medical officer is crystal clear: every last drop of vaccine should be used."
Many centres were finding they were able to get six doses out of a five-dose vial, and Sir Simon said they should keep a reserve list of staff and high-risk patients who could be contacted to receive a vaccination at short notice.
Vaccinating priority groups by the spring would not mean that "with one bound we are free" of coronavirus restrictions, he said. But he said: "I don't think we will have to wait until the autumn."
Sir Simon also warned that although starting with the most vulnerable groups reduced the risk of deaths, a quarter of hospital patients with the virus were currently under 50 - and therefore not a priority unless they have a medical condition that puts them at additional risk.
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2021-01-17 11:50:00Z
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