All adults aged 50 and over should have been offered a coronavirus vaccine by May, Downing Street has confirmed.
Previously ministers had said it was their "ambition" to vaccinate the first nine priority groups by the spring.
The UK had given a first jab to nearly 11 million people as of Thursday and is aiming to reach 15 million vaccinations by 15 February.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a lot of things would "have to go right" to hit the May target for all over-50s.
He said supply was the "most difficult" limiting factor in the roll out.
But he said the government was on track to vaccinate the first four priority groups by the middle of the month, these include the over-70s, frontline health and care workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable.
The top nine priority vaccination groups - which are set by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) - also includes people aged 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions.
A further 1,014 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported on Friday, taking the total by that measure to 111,264.
There have been 19,114 more positive cases of coronavirus recorded, while another 480,560 people received their first dose of a vaccine - taking the total to 10,971,047 across the UK.
In a press release confirming May's local elections will go ahead, the Cabinet Office said: "The UK's vaccination programme is planned to have reached all nine priority cohorts by May, meaning that the government can commit to go ahead with these polls with confidence."
The prime minister's spokesman said he would set out a "precise timeline" for vaccinations when he publishes the government's roadmap for lifting lockdown restrictions in England on 16 February.
Previously ministers had not discussed a date by which over-50s would have been offered a jab.
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Coronavirus cases are showing clear signs of falling across the UK, the latest figures suggest, and the R number - the average number of people someone with Covid will go on to infect - has dropped slightly to between 0.7 and 1.
Mark Harper, chairman of the Covid Recovery Group made up of Conservative MPs who want lockdown to be eased, said it would be "almost impossible to justify having any restrictions in place" once the over-50s had been vaccinated.
His comments come after Prof Graham Medley, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said the government should avoid "setting dates" for lifting lockdown and should focus on meeting criteria rather than following a calendar.
"Vaccination offers a way out and it does reduce the impact of infection, but it doesn't remove it completely," he said. "And so case numbers are still important because they represent the risk of having to go back into some kind of national measures."
Mr Hancock said it was "still too early to say" when restrictions could be lifted and said there was no government plan "at the moment" for vaccine passports.
"It is imperative that even with the good news on the vaccine and even with the cases starting to fall, it's imperative that everyone follows the rules," he said.
The UK's drugs regulator said the vaccines being distributed in the country are extremely safe while new research shows the AstraZeneca jab protects well against the new "Kent" variant of Covid.
Earlier on Friday, the government also announced a deal with biopharmaceutical company CureVac, which Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said would allow the UK to "swiftly tweak and roll out" existing vaccines to combat new variants, with 50 million doses placed in an initial order for later this year.
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2021-02-05 16:33:00Z
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