Approval of a Covid vaccine is NOT a 'silver bullet', Hertfordshire's public health chief has warned.

Even as the vaccination programme is set to get underway, director of public health Jim McManus warns it will still take many months before vaccination has a massive impact on population immunity.

That, he says, means measures to suppress the virus will be needed for some time.

Speaking at a meeting of the county's Health and Wellbeing Board on Friday (December 4), he said there had been a recent decline in the number of confirmed cases of Covid on the county – with data pointing to a 15.5 per cent fall in cases over the past two weeks.

But he said the numbers were still too high, with data showing a rate of 185 cases per 100,000 population in Broxbourne and 140 in Hertsmere.

He stressed the need to continue with the measures to suppress the virus, while the vaccination programme is rolled out.

"Vaccination is not a silver bullet", Mr McManus said at the meeting of the board.

"It will take us, even as we roll out the vaccine, several months before we see a massive impact on the circulation of the virus and population immunity.

"That means until Easter we have to keep on going on with the measures that we are taking.

"Vaccination is not going to suddenly make us able to open everything up by Christmas.

"We have to be absolutely realistic about the expectations of that with our population and with ourselves.

"So if we want vaccination to do its job – we need to keep on with all the suppression measures."