MORE than half of all Scotland’s care home residents have had the first jab of the coronavirus vaccination, Nicola Sturgeon has revealed.
The First Minister said in total 113,459 doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been issued across Scotland.
"That is extremely important, as you have just heard, more than a third of people who died from Covid last week died in our care homes," Sturgeon said at the government’s regular coronavirus briefing.
"We very much hope that the vaccine will very soon start to significantly reduce the risk of care home residents becoming ill with the virus."
READ MORE: Covid in Scotland: 78 deaths recorded as cases continue to surge
The First Minister said that more than 1100 vaccination sites - mostly GP practices and community premises - would be operational across Scotland next week.
Sturgeon also committed the government to publishing daily numbers of people receiving the jab.
A weekly publication by Public Health Scotland will also offer a more detailed breakdown of those who have been vaccinated.
"Vaccination ultimately is what will provide us with a route out of this pandemic, so we are absolutely determined to ensure that as many people as possible are vaccinated just as quickly as it is possible to do so," the First Minister said.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross claimed his party had forced the Scottish Government into publishing the figures.
He said: “We’re pleased to hear that the Government have finally listened to the repeated Scottish Conservative calls for daily vaccination figures.
“Publishing these numbers will increase transparency and give the public confidence that progress is being made in our fight against Covid-19.
“We now need to hear more about how the rollout is progressing across local health boards to prevent any postcode lottery from emerging and to make sure every part of Scotland is getting the same access to the vaccine.”
It comes as Scotland recorded 78 deaths of coronavirus patients and 2649 new cases in the past 24-hour period, according to official figures.
The death toll under this measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - is now 4779.
However, the latest statistics from the National Records of Scotland - which includes all those who have coronavirus mentioned on their death certificate - at 6,686 deaths as of January 3.
Between 21st December to 3rd January 383 deaths were registered that mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate.
The number of deaths for the week, December 21-27, was 200 and 183 deaths were registered in the following week from December 28 to January 3.
The NRS said that as there were fewer registrations than usual in these weeks due to public holidays, death registrations are likely to be lower than the actual numbers of deaths that occurred in these weeks .
The statistics for December 28 to January 3 show that 75% of the 183 deaths registered in the latest week were of people aged 75 and over, and 8% were aged under 65.
The majority of deaths occurred in hospitals representing 111 deaths, 63 occurred in care homes and 9 at home or in a non-institutional setting.
Scottish Government statistics indicate the daily test positivity rate is 11.3%, up from 10.5% on Wednesday when 2039 positive cases were recorded.
A total of 143,715 people have tested positive in Scotland since the start of the pandemic.
There are 1467 people in hospital confirmed to have Covid-19, up 83 from 1384 in 24 hours.
Of these patients, 100 are in intensive care - up by five on the previous day.
There were a further 660 confirmed cases in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, with 389 in NHS Lanarkshire and 357 in NHS Lothian.
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