Scotland records 22 deaths and 7144 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours

Scotland has recorded 22 deaths and 7144 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours.

Official figures indicate that as of Wednesday, there were 944 people in hospital with Covid-19.

A total of 11 people were in intensive care having recently tested positive with the virus.

The statistics show that just over 4.4 million have now received their first vaccine dose in Scotland.

Meanwhile, around 4.1 million have had their second dose, and just over 3.3 million have had their third dose or a booster.

It comes after the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) issued advice that children aged five to 11 years old should be offered a coronavirus vaccination.

Scotland’s national clinical director Jason Leitch has recommended that parents and carers of children in that age group take them to be vaccinated.

However, he explained that people should not panic and rush to get the vaccination right away.

He said of the JCVI: “This group of experts, who do vaccination for a living, this is their job, they have now said that the balance of risk is now in favour, particularly because of rare, severe disease in young people, still very rare but possible, that we should offer a vaccination to all five to 11-year-olds.

“In full conversation with parents, carers, young people – don’t panic and do it all tomorrow.

“Do it in a considered and gradual way.”

Asked if he would recommend that parents should get their kids vaccinated, he said: “Yes, it is, unless you have a contraindication or a reason not to do that, for instance, a medical reason in one of your children, or something else going on.

“I would suggest you have a conversation with a vaccinator once those appointments come out, discuss anything you want to talk about.

“They’re trained, they can answer your questions. If they don’t know the specific answer to your kid’s challenge, if they’ve got a rare complication or something, then they’ll have somebody else in the clinic who’ll be able to help them with that.

“So, yes, it’s my strong recommendation that you think very, very carefully about vaccinating your five to 11-year-old.”