People with severe allergies to food or medicine have been warned not to have the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine after two NHS staff suffered an allergic reaction on the first day of rollout.

UK regulators, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has given precautionary advice to NHS trusts that anyone who has a history of “significant” allergic reactions to medicines, food or vaccines should not receive the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.

The workers were given the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Tuesday – the first day of the NHS mass vaccination programme – and then suffered an allergic reaction.

The NHS in England said all trusts involved with the vaccination programme had been informed.

Professor Stephen Powis, the national medical director for the NHS in England, said: “As is common with new vaccines the MHRA have advised on a precautionary basis that people with a significant history of allergic reactions do not receive this vaccination after two people with a history of significant allergic reactions responded adversely yesterday.

“Both are recovering well.”