The Oxford vaccine is expected to be approved within days of Christmas, kickstarting a massive drive to give jabs to millions of people in January, The Telegraph can reveal.
Senior Whitehall sources believe the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will authorise the vaccines on December 28 or 29 after final data is provided to the regulator on Monday.
Football stadia and other sites across the country will then be opened from the first week of January, to allow mass vaccinations on a scale never seen before in the UK.
However, the progress comes amid growing fears that England is about to enter a third lockdown, with the Prime Minister recently refusing to rule out following Wales and Northern Ireland in such a course of action.
Last week the NHS began the first Covid-19 vaccination programme in the world, with jabs given to around 140,000 elderly people and health and care workers in the first seven days.
This week the rollout has expanded far more widely, with around 400 GP centres now involved, as well as 83 hospitals.
Over the weekend, the total number of Britons who have received the jab is expected to pass the 500,000 mark, The Telegraph understands.