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A third Covid-19 vaccine, made by a US company called Moderna, will be used in Wales from today.

Adults getting a Covid jab in Carmarthenshire will become the first in the UK to receive it.

The Moderna vaccine was approved as safe and effective for use in the UK in January.

In doing so, it became the third vaccine to be approved for use after the Pfizer-BioNtech and Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs.

The UK government has ordered vaccines from seven different companies in total.

It has ordered 17 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, and the first 5,000 doses will be given in Carmarthenshire, starting at Camarthen's Glangwili hospital.

It hasn't been announced yet when the rest of the UK can start using it.

Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, confirmed that they had received their first batches, while the UK government's vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Tuesday that the Moderna vaccine would be first used "around the third week of April".

More than 31.6 million people in the UK have now had a first dose of a Covid vaccine. 5.4 million people have been fully vaccinated.

In Wales, almost half of the population has had a first dose, with 1.49 million people receiving a jab and more than 469,000 having both doses.

But the UK's Covid vaccine supplies are due to be delayed by "up to four weeks" in April and Wales expects to have 250,000 fewer Oxford-AstraZeneca jab doses.

Wales' chief pharmacist Andrew Evans has said he hopes the Moderna vaccine rollout will help make up the losses.

The Moderna vaccine works in a similar way to the Pfizer vaccine in that it needs to be stored in a freezer and requires the patient to have two doses at an interval of between four and 12 weeks.

In a trial setting, the jab has been very successful, with results suggesting that it's almost 95% effective against the virus.