Approval of a Covid-19 vaccine is not a "silver bullet", Hertfordshire’s public health chief has warned.

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

And 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-19 on the county – with data pointing to a 15.5 per cent fall in cases over the past two weeks.

However, weekend figures have shown cases increased in all of Hertfordshire's ten districts in the seven days to December 3 compared to the seven days to November 26.

Mr McManus said last week's numbers were "still too high", so he will be even more concerned about the latest rates, particularly in Watford, Hertsmere, and Broxbourne.

The public health chief stressed the need for residents 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.

He added: " . . 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.

"And 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."

Meanwhile Mr McManus also acknowledged there would need to be work to address public fears and concerns relating to vaccination.

He said: "We do need seriously to address the fears people have because of misinformation about vaccination.

"I will be in the queue for vaccination as soon as I am allowed to join it.

"But we recognise there are many people who have got concerns and fears. And we have to take those honestly if we are to get the vaccine to do its job.

"We need everybody who is eligible to take it up.

"So we are going to have to work together, as part of our ‘journey to exit’, on the vaccine hesitancy."