JABS FOR ALL SCOTS ADULTS BY JULY 31ST
• Sturgeon to reveal Covid exit strategy on Tuesday • Indoor l care home visits get green light • NHS to vaccinate all over-50s by April15 and...
EVERY adult in Scotland will be offered at least one dose of a Covid vaccine by the end of July, fuelling hopes of a quicker exit from lockdown.
The number of jabs available north of the Border is expected to rise to 100,000 a day next month, say senior
UK Government sources – and it comes as Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon prepare to outline their route maps out of lockdown tomorrow and Tuesday.
The UK Government had previously said it hoped to vaccinate all adults by the autumn.
Now Mr Johnson is expected to say that everyone over 50 will be offered at least a first dose by April 15, rather than by May as previously suggested – and that all UK adults would be
offered a jab by the end of July. The Scottish Government said last night it was ready to vaccinate as fast as the jab supplies would allow.
It will increase pressure on Nicola Sturgeon to speed up Scotland’s exit from lockdown, especially if infections, hospitalisations and death rates continue to fall.
Mr Johnson said last night: ‘Hitting 15 million vaccinations was a significant milestone but there will be no let-up. I want to see the rollout go further and faster in the coming weeks.
‘We will now aim to offer a jab to every adult by the end of July, helping us to take further steps to ease some of the restrictions in place.
‘But there should be no doubt – the route out of lockdown will be cautious and phased.’
So far, 1,412,613 people in Scotland have received their first dose, with 33,472 having their second.
Across the UK there have been 17,247,442 first doses and 604,885 of the second. There were 803 new Covid cases in Scotland yesterday, with 1,154 people in hospital and 29 deaths. Both deaths and the number of patients in hospital have fallen in recent days. In other developments:
• Care home visits in Scotland are to start again, with residents able to designate two visitors and see at least one person a week, from March;
• Scottish garden centres have said that they must be allowed to reopen next month, with those south of the Border already trading;
• Chancellor Rishi Sunak has drawn up plans to extend business support until the autumn, but also plans to announce tax rises in next month’s Budget;
• Thousands of Scotland’s youngest pupils, from nursery to P3, will return to school tomorrow – but parents have been advised not to mingle at the school gates.
The Scottish Government has been clear that getting pupils back in the classroom is the main priority and it is likely to be the focus at the subsequent major review in mid-March.
The second priority is allowout ing families to see more of each other. That could be followed by the reopening of non-essential shops, with pubs and restaurants potentially farther down the pecking order.
A Scottish Government source said that Tuesday’s announcement would focus on ‘data not dates’. Ms Sturgeon will not announce when certain restrictions can be lifted but set out broadly what might be allowed depending on the level of infections, vaccinations and hospitalisations.
However, Professor Jason Leitch, the national clinical director, warned summer holidays abroad are still unlikely.
He said: ‘We’ve got to get our cases. You could imagine a world where you get to 20 cases per 100,000, and another country in Europe also has 20 per 100,000. That’s where I think we will get to by the end of the year, maybe by the summer, but I really doubt it.’ Vaccine rates have slowed in recent days because of manufacturing changes at the Pfizer factory in Belgium.
There were 26,491 first doses and 4,458 second doses administered in Scotland on Friday.
That compared with more than 60,000 on some days previously. A UK Government source said: ‘Take that rate of vaccination Scotland was hitting previously – they will be able to double it in March.’
That would be the equivalent of vaccinating everyone in Edinburgh in less than a week.
Scottish Tory health spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘Vaccines are our best route of current restrictions. If supplies to Scotland are set to increase imminently, the SNP must be prepared to use them.
‘We’ve called for a full route map to be published by the SNP outlining Scotland’s way out of lockdown, and the SNP must be honest and upfront about how that fits with the vaccine rollout.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We have consistently said our vaccination programme will flex to respond to supply. The rapid pace of our programme shows how fast we can move when we have the supplies to do so.
‘Our revised strategic framework for easing restrictions will be published on Tuesday.
‘It will set out how we will use and balance all the tools at our disposal – vaccination, test and protect, and travel restrictions – to restore, on a phased basis, greater normality.’
‘I want to see rollout go further and faster’
‘SNP must be fully prepared for supplies’