VACCINE DELAY FOR OVER-80s

SNP ministers accused of ‘rowing back’ on key target

A TARGET to vaccinate everyone over the age of 80 in Scotland by the end of this month has been pushed back by a week, Nicola Sturgeon admitted.

The First Minister confirmed the target has been extended to the first week of February, amid growing concerns the country’s vaccination programme is lagging behind the rest of the UK.

But she shrugged off criticism the rollout has started to slip and said it was instead being ‘refined’.

Ministers previously extended the target until the end of this month, sparking claims they have ‘rowed back’ from the original timetable. It was also revealed that one in four GP surgeries has still not received confirmation of supplies of the vaccine.

And there is a continuing row over unused supplies, after it emerged that 717,000 doses have been made available to Scotland but only 309,909 people had received the first dose up to yesterday.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney claimed that some of these supplies could not be distributed because they have not yet arrived in Scotland.

But it is understood they are only being held in a storage facility in England because the SNP Government has not asked for them to be delivered yet. Sources insist that deliveries could take place the day they are requested.

Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Tories at Holyrood, said: ‘If you listen to Nicola Sturgeon, then GPs, the BMA Scotland and anyone raising concerns about the vaccine rollout are all wrong. A key target has already slipped by a week.

‘The facts speak for themselves. Vaccine doses did slow down considerably over the weekend. The SNP’s rollout is lagging behind. For a fortnight, the SNP have had hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses, and they’re not reaching GPs quickly enough. That won’t be fixed by the First Minister’s spin, dodging of valid questions and downplaying of legitimate criticism.’

Earlier, Mr Swinney told the BBC that more vaccine doses would arrive in Scotland ‘over the course of the next few weeks’, allowing all over-80s to be vaccinated ‘by the end of the first week in February’.

The date has slipped compared to an initial pledge by Health Secretary Jeane Freeman that the 560,000 doses would be delivered to all over-80s and others in the top priority groups by the end of January.

Miss Sturgeon said on Tuesday that between 15-20 per cent of those over the age of 80 had received the first dose and the Government was ‘on track’ to ensure this is completed ‘by the start of February’.

At First Minister’s Questions yesterday, Miss Davidson claimed Mr Swinney had ‘rowed back’ from the original timetable by setting the new target date of February 7.

She said: ‘The First Minister called the vaccination programme a race against Covid... why are we already falling behind?’

Miss Sturgeon said: ‘On this point about end of January versus the beginning of February, we refine these target dates as we go along, based on our developing understanding of supply.’ Miss Davidson replied: ‘There we have it: it’s not a slip, it is a refinement.’

Responding to claims of patchy supplies to GPs, Miss Sturgeon said deliveries are ‘speeding up’ and 75 per cent of them ‘have supplies or are in the process of receiving their supply’. But it is not known what proportion of the total supply for this month has been issued.

Miss Sturgeon has pledged that three million people will receive their first jab within three months.

But asked about the impact of delays in production of the Pfizer jab, she admitted some supplies may have to be held back ‘to ensure that second doses can be done within the 12-week timescale’.