The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh have received their Covid-19 vaccinations at Windsor Castle, joining more than a million people who have been given the jab.

In an unusual move, Buckingham Palace, which rarely comments on the private health matters of the monarch and duke, announced the 94-year-old head of state and her consort, 99, had been given the injection.

It is understood the Queen decided the information should be made public to prevent inaccuracies and further speculation.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have today received Covid-19 vaccinations."

A royal source confirmed the injections were administered by a household doctor at Windsor Castle.

The Queen and Philip have been spending lockdown sheltering at their Windsor Castle home, and had a quiet Christmas at the Berkshire residence after deciding to forgo the traditional royal family gathering at Sandringham.

It is not known which vaccine the Queen and duke were given but it is likely they will receive their second dose up to 12 weeks later.

In America, key public figures have been photographed while being inoculated, with president-elect Joe Biden appearing on live television when he received a dose in December.

Making the Queen and duke's inoculations public is likely to have the added effect of giving sceptical members of the public more confidence in the vaccine.

The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge both contracted coronavirus during the first wave of the pandemic.

Charles was described as having mild symptoms and lost his sense of taste and smell for a period, while it was reported his son William was hit "pretty hard" by the virus.

On a visit to a vaccination centre at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital before Christmas, Charles said he is "way down the list" for an inoculation.

On Friday, a third coronavirus vaccine was approved for use in the UK as the country recorded the highest number of Covid-19 deaths on a single day - 1,325 people.

The latest jab, from US biotech firm Moderna, has been given the green light by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency - joining the vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca which are already being used in the UK.

Nearly 1.5 million people in the UK have already been vaccinated with either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine, with the Government aiming to jab 15 million of those most at risk by mid-February.