Covid in Scotland: Jab given to 98% of older care home residents - BBC News
Nicola Sturgeon says the NHS is "ahead of schedule" in rolling out vaccines to the over-80s by Friday's deadline.
Violet Adams, 78, was first in the queue to receive her vaccine at Aberdeen's P&J Live centre

Almost every elderly care home resident in Scotland and 80% of the over-80s in the community have received the first dose of the Covid vaccine.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said 98% of older people in care homes and 88% of care home staff have had the jab.

She told the government's daily coronavirus briefing that the NHS is "ahead of schedule" to complete first doses for all over-80s by Friday.

It came as two mass vaccination centres opened in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Vaccination of the over-70s is now under way, with Ms Sturgeon saying that 14% of people aged 75-79 have had the jab.

They are among more than 575,000 people in Scotland to have been vaccinated, Ms Sturgeon said.

However, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the daily vaccination figures for Sunday were "the lowest yet".

"When we're in a race against the virus, why are the SNP running backwards?" he said.

"The SNP are failing to deliver a seven-day service and the first minister seems to have no plans for getting the vaccine out to GPs faster."

Ms Sturgeon said she would look into the issue and wanted to make sure the vaccine rollout was continuing at the same pace seven days a week.

In November, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman had outlined hopes that one million Scots could get the jab before the end of January.

Challenged on the disparity, Ms Sturgeon pointed out that there were no approved vaccines in November.

"There were assumptions being made at that point that have had to be, for all countries across the UK, refined on the basis of the actual supply, not just the totality of those supplies but the actual phasing of those supplies over the period," she added.

"We'll continue to look to pick up pace, look to address issues where we don't think it's going as fast as it needs to... but we're cracking on with this just as quickly as we are able to do."

The Louisa Jordan vaccination centre has been carrying out between 1,000 and 5,000 vaccinations a day

The Scottish government has said everyone in the next stage of the vaccine rollout should receive their first jab by the middle of the month, subject to supplies.

Initially, the new centres will be able to vaccinate 27,000 people a week.

Over-70s will also receive jabs at smaller centres such as village halls.

Some GP surgeries have already begun the vaccinations for that priority group, which also includes people who are clinically extremely vulnerable and over-16s on the shielding list.

Letters started going out a week ago and the Scottish government is urging everyone to take up their appointments.

Rosemary McGlone receives her vaccination at Fernhill Community Centre in Rutherglen

The site at the Edinburgh EICC will be able to vaccinate more than 21,000 people a week, while the Aberdeen facility at P&J Live will vaccinate about 6,000 every week.

The Louisa Jordan mass vaccination centre in Glasgow has been operating since 8 December.

It has been carrying out between 1,000 and 5,000 vaccinations daily and has the capacity to move to 10,000 a day.

The Scottish government said the scale of operations at the mass vaccination centres meant letters would also start going out next week in Lothian, Grampian and Greater Glasgow and Clyde to those aged between 65 and 69 - the next group on the priority list.

It said the programme for first doses for care home residents, front-line health and social care workers and those aged 80 and over would be completed by 5 February.

The Army helped to set up the mass vaccination centre at P&J Live facility in Aberdeen

The Scottish government's vaccine deployment plan, which was published on 14 January, said vaccination facilities would also open in Bathgate, Musselburgh and Motherwell. However, no specific dates have been given.

NHS Lothian has told BBC Scotland that the Bathgate and Musselburgh sites will be able to carry out about 14,000 and 8,000 vaccinations per week respectively when they are fully operational.

The virus programme was boosted on Saturday as NHS Lanarkshire opened the doors in East Kilbride to any over-80s who had not yet received their first dose.

The health board advertised extra appointments at its vaccination centre at the Alistair McCoist Complex for patients of GP practices in the area who were eligible.
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