Vaccination programme 'delivering ahead' of expectations

The health secretary has said Scotland’s Covid vaccination programme is “delivering ahead” of expectations.

Jeane Freeman hailed the “enormous efforts” of vaccinators as the number of Scots to have been given their first injection passed three quarters of a million.

The latest figures show 93% of over-80s received a vaccine by its target date on Friday.

In total 786,427 Scots have received the first dose of the vaccination and 10,332 have received their second dose.

Some 99% of older adult care home residents have received a first dose, along with 89% of staff in older adult care homes.

A total of 272,365 frontline health and social care workers have also been vaccinated, exceeding the initial target of 230,000 staff provided by health boards.

Health secretary Jeane Freeman is optimistic about vaccine rollout. Getty Images

Freeman said the programme is now “delivering ahead of expectations thanks to the enormous efforts of our vaccination teams”.

Following the latest Scottish Government statistics update, she said: “I would like to thank everyone who is working tirelessly to make this a success, and also every individual who has taken up their offer of a vaccine.

“Our aim is to vaccinate as many people as possible with both their first and second doses. The vaccine deployment plan was predicated on an uptake of at least 80% in each cohort – though so far we are significantly exceeding that for care home residents and staff, frontline healthcare staff, and over 80-year-olds in the community. If you are aged over 80 but have not yet received your invite, you should contact your GP surgery so they can assist.

‘We hope to see a significant drop in the disease due to the vaccination programme, however this will take a number of months to evaluate fully.’
Health secretary Jeane Freeman

“We hope to see a significant drop in the disease due to the vaccination programme, however this will take a number of months to evaluate fully. In the shorter term, we are monitoring the uptake rate but we also have a comprehensive surveillance system in place to monitor outcome of vaccine efficacy and disease reduction.

“Each health board is working hard to get the vaccine into people’s arms as quickly as possible, and everyone eligible will be offered the vaccine as we work our way through the priority groups.”