MORE than two and half million Scots will receive the coronavirus vaccine by early May, the First Minister has said.
Addressing MSPs as she outlined a slew of new restrictions in a bid to tackle rapidly rising Covid cases, Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland was “now in a race between the vaccine and the virus”.
She said that the government’s expectation was that all over-50s and those with underlying health conditions should get their first jab within the next five months.
The First Minister was speaking as the first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were being rolled out across the UK. Sturgeon told Holyrood: “Our current expectation, based on assumptions about supply and the new advice on doses being administered up to 12 weeks apart, rather than three, is that by early May everyone over 50, and people under 50 with specific underlying conditions, will have received at least the first dose of vaccine.
“That is everyone who is on the [Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation advisory body] priority list, and comprises more than 2.5 million people.
“Once everyone on the priority list has been vaccinated, we will start vaccinating the rest of the population, and will do this in parallel with completing second doses for those on the priority list.
“Those timetables are of course heavily dependent on vaccine supply.
“And for that reason, they are also cautious.
“However, I have tasked our vaccination team with exploring and keeping under ongoing review all options to speed up the rate of vaccination and bring these timescales forward as far as possible.”
One of the first to get the AstraZeneca vaccine was 82-year-old James Shaw from Dundee.
He was vaccinated at the Lochee Health and Community Care Centre in the city alongside his wife Malita, also 82.
NHS Tayside is rolling out the vaccine through GP practices in the community and will also vaccinate elderly residents and staff in care homes.
Shaw said: “My wife and I are delighted to be receiving this vaccination.
READ MORE: More businesses required to close as Scotland tightens Covid lockdown
“I have asthma and bronchitis and I have been desperate to have it, so I am really pleased to be one of the first to be getting it.
“I know it takes a little while for the vaccine to work but after today I know that I will feel a bit less worried about going out.
“I will still be very careful and avoid busy places but knowing I have been vaccinated will really help me.
“All of my friends have said they are going to have the vaccine when it is their turn and I would encourage everyone who is offered this vaccination to take it.”
The UK has secured access to 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine, enough for most of the population.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation says priority should be given first to care home residents and their carers. Also given priority are people over the age of 80 and frontline health and social care workers.
The programme will then be rolled out to the rest of the population, starting with people aged 75 to 79, followed next by those aged 70-74 and the clinically extremely vulnerable. Meanwhile, during the Holyrood session, Sturgeon confirmed that the two Covid vaccines will not be mixed in Scotland.
In its guidance to healthcare professionals, Public Health England, said that it was preferable for patients to get the same vaccine type but that it was “reasonable to offer one dose of the locally available product to complete the schedule.”
It added that this option was “preferred if the individual is likely to be at immediate high risk or is considered unlikely to attend again.
“In these circumstances, as both the vaccines are based on the spike protein, it is likely the second dose will help to boost the response to the first dose.”
That raised a number of questions from medics. John Moore, vaccine expert at Cornell University in the US said there is “no data on this idea whatsoever” and claimed the UK “seem to have abandoned science completely now “.
The First Minister said mixing the two jabs is “not our policy in Scotland” unless there are “exceptional circumstances such as we don’t know what vaccine was given in the first dose”.
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