Vaccine supply is now ‘stabilising’

SUPPLIES of the coronavirus vaccine sent to Scotland are now starting to ‘stabilise’, according to a senior minister.

Nadhim Zahawi, the UK Vaccines Minister, said he has ‘good confidence’ that supplies will be available to ensure everyone over the age of 70 in Scotland can get the jab by the middle of next month.

It is understood that around 700,000 doses have already been delivered, a figure which has increased by 140,000 in the last week.

Addressing concerns from Scottish GPs that ‘patchy supply’ has impacted efforts to get the vaccine to patients, Mr Zahawi said: ‘NHS Scotland obviously is dealing with the logistics of supply to the GPs’ surgeries. The challenge for all of us is that the manufacturing process has been lumpy, but nevertheless supply is beginning to steady and we’ve got good confidence that we will make sure we offer those top four categories the vaccine by mid-February.

‘It is beginning to stabilise now and let up but batches move around, obviously there is quality control by the manufacturer and quality control by the regulator. Both have to be absolutely correct and the worst thing you can do is get this stuff wrong.

‘Week on week it gets better and we will make sure that NHS Scotland has the supplies in place to get them out to GPs. The one thing that we all are working on very hard is to try and give GPs more certainty – at least a week or hopefully two weeks’ notice so they can book in the appointments and get the most vulnerable people vaccinated.’

Speaking on BBC Good Morning Scotland, he also said that he is ‘very confident’ that the vaccine can be offered to all adults by September. He added: ‘We have got 3 7 million vaccines for all four nations.’