VACC TO NORMAL LIFE
Government sets out ambitious timetable to offer 1.4million people in the country’s most vulnerable groups Covid jabs by the beginning of March
UP TO 1.4million people in Scotland will have had their coronavirus vaccination by March under ambitious targets set out yesterday.
An army of nurses, volunteers and the military are being mobilised to ensure the jabs are delivered as quickly as possible.
As the Scottish Government makes arrangements for mass vaccination centres, football clubs such as Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen and Dunfermline offered their stadia.
Ministers yesterday vowed:
All over- 80s, frontline NHS staff and care home residents would have their first dose by the start of February
The over- 70s would be offered it by mid-February
Those over 65 and the vulnerable should get it by the end of next month.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament: “This means that by the start of March, 1.4million people will have received at least the first dose.
“All of this is positive – vaccination offers us a route back to a more normal life and does give us real hope for the future.”
At Holyrood earlier, ahead of publishing a vaccination deployment plan, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said the most recent rate of Covid-19 cases was 262 per 100,000, with a test positivity rate of 10.1 per cent, and the new more transmissible strain showed increased dominance. She said: “We face a more perilous state than at any point in this pandemic.
“While our NHS i s ver y hard pressed we have more at our hand to fight this.”
She said that between December 8 and January 12 vaccinations had been delivered to more than 80 per cent of care home residents and 55 per cent of care home staff, as well as just under 52 per cent of frontline NHS and social care staff. By January 4, two per cent of over-80s living in the community had also been vaccinated.
She said: “By the first week in February we will complete 100 per cent first dose vaccinations for all those in the first two groups.
“Overall a total of 191,965 people have received their first dose … and 2990 have received their second dose.”
The Pfizer and Oxford/Astra
Zeneca vaccine supply is such that by the first week in February it’s hoped 400,000 vaccinations will be delivered a week.
The third Moderna vaccine will not arrive in Scotland until April.
Freeman said that by going on to vaccinate over 50s and people with serious health concerns, it would mean around 90 per cent of those most likely to die or be seriously ill would be protected.
Scotland’s allocation of the vaccine up to yesterday was 565,125 doses and of those 365,000 had arrived.
A further 155,025 doses of the Pfizer jab and 42,100 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are either in transit or storage.
In the first two priority groups, employers, health boards or GPs will make arrangements for vaccines. Other groups will be contacted by letter or phone.
Freeman continued: “We will begin vaccinating people aged 70 and over by mid-February and those aged 65 and over as well as those who are clinically extremely vulnerable by the beginning of March.
“All priority groups in JVCI 1-5 – 1.4million people – will be vaccinated with the first dose. The second dose vaccination will run in parallel, with the first starting from the end of February.”
Freeman said a range of settings, even including people’s own homes if they are too frail to travel, will be used initially.
But from next month, more sites will open in pharmacies, mobile clinics and as large centres – such as Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre – capable of delivering 20,000 vaccinations a week.
As larger numbers become eligible for the vaccines bigger centres will open 8am to 8pm but Freeman has pledged to extend it to 24 hours a day if it is more convenient for people waiting for vaccinations.
To vaccinate 400,000 people a week requires a daily workforce capacity of 1700 vaccinators and 950 support staff.
Currently there are just under 5000 registered vaccinators, though some may be part-time. This is in addition to GPs.
Work is also under way to set up a volunteers co-ordination hub for deployment vaccination centres.
Greens MSP Mark Ruskell called for Freeman to consider vaccinating teachers to make a full-time return to school more likely.
Lib Dem health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said last night: “The vaccine rollout has been sluggish. We’re told we have enough vaccinators and vaccine, so I can’t understand why we have an unused stockpile.”