Pregant women have been advised not to take the newly-approved Pfizer coronavirus vaccine because riskes to mums-to-be are still unknown.

The UK became the first in the world to clinically authorise the vaccine after British regulator, the HMRA, approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine rollout saying the jab had shown 95% effectiveness.

The vaccine could as early as next week after the UK ordered 40 million doses - enough to vaccinate 20 million people. 

But experts advising the government ahead of the national rollout have advised against pregnant women taking the vaccine preferring a "precautionary approach".

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has stated elderly poeple in nursing homes and their carers will be top of the list for vaccination before other memebers of society but the committe have advised pregnant women not to get one. 

They said: "There are no data as yet on the safety of Covid-19 vaccines in pregnancy, either from human or animal studies.

"Given the lack of evidence, JCVI favours a precautionary approach, and does not currently advise Covid-19 vaccination in pregnancy.

"Women should be advised not to come forward for vaccination if they may be pregnant or are planning a pregnancy within three months of the first dose."

Downing Street said there was an “enormous amount of planning and preparation in place” for the distribution of a vaccine.

“The priority will be the most vulnerable groups and we take advice from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on which groups should get the vaccine, based on these factors and we keep it under review,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.

“We have secured early access to over 360 million vaccine doses through the agreements that we have with several separate vaccine developers at various stages of the trials.

“We have invested over £140 million into manufacturing any successful vaccine, so there is an enormous amount of planning and preparation in place across government to be able to quickly roll out the vaccine.”

Asked whether Boris Johnson would like everyone to be vaccinated, the spokesman said: “We will take advice from the JCVI on who should get the vaccine.