Advice is get vaccinated as death toll hits 10,000

The coronavirus death toll in Scotland has now passed 10,000. Figures from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) show 38 Covid-19-related deaths were registered between March 29 and April 4, bringing the total number of fatalities up to Sunday to 9,997.

Since then, six deaths have been recorded in the daily figures from Public Health Scotland.

NRS also warned that with fewer registrations than usual this week due to the public holiday last Friday, the actual fatality figure may be even higher.

Speaking during a coronavirus briefing yesterday, national clinical director Jason Leitch said one coronavirus patient death and 364 positive tests were recorded in the past 24 hours.

He had earlier sought to reassure Scots that the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine is safe, after UK regulators said there is a possible link between it and “extremely rare” blood clots.

He said the vaccination programme is helping drive down Covid deaths and urged people to keep going for their vaccinations.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has said that while it has not concluded the vaccine causes rare brain clots, the link is getting firmer – though it insisted the benefits still outweigh the risks.

The regulators have recommended people aged under 30 should be offered Pfizer or Moderna as alternatives to AstraZeneca as the balance of risk is more finely balanced for younger age groups who did not tend to suffer serious Covid illness.

Mr Leitch told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland: “If you end up in intensive care there is a one in four chance of a serious blood clot, which knocks the other risks out of the park, and therefore vaccinating everybody and everybody turning up for their appointments is the crucial message.

“Ten thousand people have unfortunately lost their lives to this disease in this country and nothing like that number have lost anything, either illness or the few deaths there have been, because of blood clots from AstraZeneca, so these three vaccines are safe, they are effective and they are, crucially in Scotland, available.

“So work your way through the ages, and Covid is the critical thing, so get rid of the incidents, drive down the hospitalisations and the mortality, which is what’s happening, we’ve now gone below 50 per 100,000 for the first time in months and that’s thanks to everybody’s work, but it’s also thanks to the vaccination programme.

“The crucial message is if you have a vaccination appointment, if you’re offered a vaccine, you should absolutely take it – you do not want Covid.”

Regulators have recommended that people aged 18 to 29 should be offered the Pfizer, Moderna or other vaccines that come on stream as the programme continues to roll out across the UK.

The MHRA said across the UK up to March 31, there were 79 reports of blood clots accompanied by low blood platelet count among people who had had their first dose of the vaccine, out of around 20 million doses given.

Of these 79 patients, 19 people have died, the regulator said, although it has not been established what the cause was in every case. The figures suggest the risk of rare blood clot is the equivalent to four people out of every million who receive the vaccine.

The MHRA said those who have had their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine should still get their second.

Grim milestones and Covid-19 are, sadly, all too easy bedfellows. Scotland has now ticked through the 10,000 mark for deaths directly attributable to Covid, or where the virus was a contributory factor.

More than half of those deaths occurred within the over-75 age group.

There are thousands more who have suffered the ill effects of coronavirus and survived, but whose long-term health may have been compromised as a result.

When numbers spiral into the thousands, it can be difficult to visualise what they really mean.

But such a loss of life as was marked yesterday is akin to the entire population of a small Scottish town such as Cupar in Fife or Kirriemuir in Angus being wiped out.

That is a truly horrendous – and quite terrifying – thought.

There is no doubt that Covid has visited a national trauma upon Scotland, just as it has on scores of countries around the world.

The lives of each of those 10,000 individuals mattered in their own right.

They were mums, dads, spouses, brothers, sisters, grans and grandads and each of them has left a hole in the life of their family and friends that is impossible to fill.

Their deaths are to be mourned, but they should also serve as an inspiration to others to do whatever it takes to prevent more people being lost to this virus.

The vaccination programme is the key to unlocking that door.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca jab has come under intense scrutiny in recent days for a potential link to blood clotting.

But the scientists and medics insist that adverse reactions in a very small number of cases should not deter anyone offered the jab from taking it, as the risks are far outweighed by the benefits.

That is a key message and one that must continue to focus minds in the months ahead.

Scotland has suffered hugely from Covid and lost many good souls to a virus that there is now a real – and tangible – opportunity to combat.

We owe it to ourselves – and to those who have died – to grasp that opportunity with both hands.