THE NHS coronavirus vaccine booking system has opened to healthy people aged 42 and over.

The national booking system has extended for the second time in a week to allow more healthy adults in their forties to book their jab.

People in England who are aged 42 and over, or those who will turn 42 before July 1, can now arrange their vaccine appointment through the national booking website.

Boris Johnson this week urged the public to be “realistic” about the prospect of the UK being hit with another wave of coronavirus infections in the future.

The Prime Minister told broadcasters that while lockdowns meant the virus was now “under control”, he warned that “there probably will be another wave of the disease”.

But Mr Johnson said that coronavirus jabs would provide “pretty robust fortifications” should there be another spike in infections going forward, as he hailed the UK’s vaccination programme.

He urged the public to take up the vaccine when offered it, with a Government campaign calling on people aged 50 and under to get their jab so the UK can “continue on the path back to normality”.

It came as the Prime Minister denied saying he was prepared to let “bodies pile high” rather than order another lockdown, amid a bitter briefing war that has hit Downing Street.

During a visit to Wrexham, when asked if he had made the comments attributed to him, Mr Johnson said: “No, but I think the important thing I think people want us to get on and do as a Government is to make sure that the lockdowns work.

“They have, and I really pay tribute to the people of this country, this whole country of ours, that have really pulled together and, working with the vaccination programme, we have got the disease under control.

“The numbers of deaths, the number of hospitalisations, are currently very low. That doesn’t mean that we have got it totally licked, it doesn’t mean that Covid is over.

“We have got to be realistic about that, unfortunately there probably will be another wave of the disease, but I think that the vaccination programme has now been so massive – 33.6 million people vaccinated.

“We have built up what I think are some pretty robust fortifications against the next wave, we will have to see how strong they really are in due course.”

A Government campaign – called “every vaccination gives us hope” – includes a TV advert which will showcase the health workers and volunteers involved in the vaccination rollout across the UK.

The campaign will predominantly be aimed at people under the age of 50 who will be offered their first dose, as well as the over-50s who are booked in for their second dose, to encourage vaccine uptake.

The push for people to take up jab offers comes as restrictions ease in Wales and Scotland and after figures over the weekend confirmed more than half of the UK’s total population had received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.