The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Uptake hailed as jab target nears
Scotland is on course to hit the one million vaccine milestone this week with uptake surpassing expectations, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday.
Ms Sturgeon said the number of people taking up the vaccine is “way beyond anything that we could have dared hope for just a few weeks ago” and is a “real tribute to the enthusiasm and the willingness of people across the country” to beat the virus.
A total of 866,823 people have received their first dose, an increase of 27,557 on Sunday and three times the number vaccinated last Sunday. Around 80,000 people received a first dose over the weekend, more than double the figure of the previous weekend.
Over the course of this week, the Scottish Government expects to reach the one million people target as it accelerates vaccination for those aged 65 to 69.
Ms Sturgeon said: “To see such large numbers, particularly in the groups most clinically vulnerable, being vaccinated is extremely encouraging.”
In the past seven days, more than 290,000 people have received their first dose, around 130,000 more than were vaccinated the previous week.
However, the number vaccinated on Sundays continues to be significantly lower than on Saturdays – this week there was a 25,282 drop between Saturday and Sunday, down around 48%.
This follows a 58% fall between Saturday and Sunday the previous week and 51% the week before that.
Questioned on the drop, Ms Sturgeon said it is “just about health boards making sure they book their capacity on a Sunday”.
On the South African variant and questions raised over the effectiveness of the Oxford/astrazeneca Covid-19 vaccine, Ms Sturgeon said people should still have confidence in it.
She said a small trial, of around 2,000 people, had provided early data that show limited efficacy for mild to moderate disease but it “hasn’t been possible to ascertain the impact on severe disease and hospitalisation”.
There are currently five confirmed and one probable case of the South African variant in Scotland, with all associated with travel rather than community transmission.
The first minister said a total of 99.6% of residents in older care homes had received a first jab, which is a “scale of uptake which none of us really believed would be possible”.
She also revealed that more than 95% of over 80-year-olds living in the community have had their first dose of a vaccine and almost 67% of people aged 75-79 and 29% of people aged 70-75 have received their first injection.
Ms Sturgeon also used her Covid-19 briefing to announce an expansion of targeted community testing using rural fire stations to a total of 21 locations in the coming weeks.
A pilot programme has been running in recent weeks in the NHS Highland area.
A total of five deaths of coronavirus patients in Scotland have been recorded in the past 24 hours, along with 928 new cases, Ms Sturgeon said.
The death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is now 6,443.
The daily test positivity rate is 6.6%, down from 6.9% when 584 new cases were recorded.
There are 1,672 people in hospital confirmed to have Covid-19, down 38 in the last 24 hours.
The first minister said this has fallen by more than 280 over the past week, which is “positive but is still significantly above the peak that we saw last spring”.