ROW OVER SNP’S JAB ROLLOUT

▪ Concerns over number of Scots receiving first dose ▪ Government is ‘trailing own targets’ over vaccine plans

SCOTLAND’S Covid-19 vaccination drive is ‘straggling off the pace’ critics warned last night, amid fears the rollout is going into reverse.

Around 2,000 fewer people a day received the jab over the weekend compared to more than 16,000 a day on average towards the end of last week.

Over the same period, 750,892 doses were given to patients in england, although there are concerns south of the Border that they are not being distributed fairly.

The Army is helping set up 80 centres in Scotland, with most of the planned mass vaccination hubs still not up and running.

Last night, the Scottish Conservative health spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘The SNP are trailing their own targets and these latest numbers are, worryingly, even further behind where they should be, if all was going to plan.

‘The Armed Forces have already had to be called in to boost the rollout because it’s becoming clear that the SNP are straggling off the pace.’

Concerns over the vaccine rollout were raised as:

▪ Figures revealed that Scotland suffered its deadliest year in three decades with 7,000 more deaths;

▪ The number of Scots being given

treatment in hospital hit another record high;

▪ Transport Secretary Michael Matheson warned that restrictions on international travel could be in place for much of 0 1;

▪ First Minister Nicola Sturgeon prepared to extend Scotland’s lockdown and school closures into February.

At her daily briefing yesterday, Miss Sturgeon revealed that 64,991 Scots had received their first dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine by 8.30am on Monday.

At the weekend, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK Government was aiming to vaccinate all adults with their first dose by September.

Asked if Scotland could meet this target or get the jabs done sooner, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘We think that if all the supplies we’re expecting come through, then I would be hopeful that we would be in a position of doing the whole adult population in that kind of timeline.’

But a Scottish Government spokesman refused to confirm if the country was now in possession of 700,000 vaccines delivered by the UK Government.

They said: ‘We will not be giving figures on the number of vaccines delivered to Scotland in light of concerns raised by the UK Government, which last week made clear it does not want such information made public.’

Yesterday, doctors warned Scotland’s vaccine rollout is being hindered by ‘patchy’ supplies of the life-saving jabs. The British Medical Association revealed that some clinics are yet to receive their first batches of the vaccine – despite the challenge of having all over-80s vaccinated by the beginning of next month.

The one mass vaccination centre which has opened, the Louisa Jordan in Glasgow, has been administering vaccines to NHS workers in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, but was closed on Sunday.

Health bosses said the centre is running six days a week, with 500 jabs an hour carried out on Saturday. There are also plans to have another mass clinic open this weekend, with 5,000 doses of vaccine to be given in one day.

Meanwhile, UK ministers are putting pressure on their own Government to end the vaccine postcode lottery.

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said her constituents in Suffolk were being given ‘distressing’ information about younger patients being given priority for jabs ahead of the more elderly.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘The critical thing is to make sure that everybody can get it.’