Sturgeon intent on vaccination for the most vulnerable
Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to "move mountains" to ensure vulnerable people are vaccinated in coming weeks, as it emerged that "thousands" of jab centres will set up around the country.
The First Minister stopped short of replicating a pledge by Boris Johnson for England to vaccinate everyone in four key priority groups by midFebruary, citing a lack of clarity about vaccine supplies.
But she said health officials would "bust a gut" to ensure all care home residents, their carers, everyone over the age of 70, all frontline health and social care workers, and everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable, receive the jab by the middle of next month in line with the pledge south of the Border.
"At the moment the biggest unknown that stops me being able to answer the question about how much sooner would I like to be able to do it is I don't know, beyond the end of January with enough certainty, what the flow of supplies is going to be," Ms Sturgeon said at yesterday’s coro - navirus briefing.
"The commitment the Prime Minister gave last night, I don't yet have enough certainty on supply beyond the end of January to say categorically looking down the camera that we think we can do those first groups of the priority list by mid-february, as the Prime Minister said.
"Do I want to do that? Yes. If we get supplies that allow that, will we bust every gut and move every mountain to deliver that? Yes, we absolutely will.
"But for me to say with certainty right now that we can do that before having the certainty of the supply would be putting the cart before the horse."
More than 100,000 Scots have already been vaccinated with the Pfizer/biontech jab, but the arrival of the UK'S Oxford/astrazeneca vaccine, which is far easier to manage, is expected to ramp up inoculation levels.
There have been 2,300 vaccinators recruited in Scotland to distribute the jab.
Ms Sturgeon has already said she plans to roll out the vaccine to all over -50 sand people below this age with health conditions by early May. This would cover about half the Scottish population.
The SNP leader said she was wary of "undermining" public confidence by making commitments which ministers would subsequently unable to deliver on.
"That's how we're going to try and do this, but underlying all of that is a determination I want to get vaccines into peoples' arms as quickly as possible," Ms Sturgeon said. "I want that as much as anybody else does and we're giving this the greatest priority and focus that we possible can and to get it done as quickly as possible."
National clinical director Professor Jason Leitch said that an extensive net work of facilities would be utilised to deliver the vaccine.
"The number of vaccination centres is thousands," he said of the plans for Scotland. We will use every GP’S surgery because that's a simple network that we will have access to and then we will have a very small number of big vaccination centres."
The Scottish Government has yet to place a firm target on when different groups will be vaccinated by, with previous targets already having slipped.
Both the Pfize rand Astra - Ze ne ca vaccines are being rolled out across Scotland, with vaccinations following the priority list from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
To date, “well over 100,000 people” have received the first dose of a vaccine, Ms Sturgeon told Holyrood when announcing the fresh Stay At Home lockdown on Monday.
Both vaccines are safe, have regulatory approval, have minor and rare side - effects and offer high levels of protection to those who receive them.
Those vaccinated will receive their second dose – crucial for the duration and efficacy of protection – within 12 weeks of their first, a move justified as being necessary to ensure as many people as possible have some protection against Covid-19.
Scotland will receive 8.2 million doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine (8.2 per cent of the 100 million ordered by the UK Government ), with 900,000 available by the end of January, according to the First Minister – double the amount previously stated by chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith on New Year’s Day.
The UK Government has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
In response to a Freedom of Information request, the Scottish government was unable to say how many vaccines would be needed to suppress the virus nationally or broken down by health board.
Despite being asked the number of individuals who are expected to receive the vaccine by July 2021, the Scottish government would not add any further detail beyond the JCVI priority list.
In total, 4.4 million people over the age of 18 will be eligible for the vaccine.
The Scottish government said initially in November that one million people would be vaccinated by the end of January, with all adult Scots to be offered one by spring, but that target is unlikely to be met.
Instead, 2.5 million people – the entire JCVI priority list – is the plan, but only “by early May”, the First Minister said.
Vaccine purchase is done by the UK Government, meaning the speed of the roll-out is dependent on that process.
However, the decision to delay the second dose of the vaccine should speed up the roll-out. It means fewer doses will be kept in storage to ensure second doses can be delivered.