ALL Scottish adults should receive the first dose of the Covid vaccine within the next eight months, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The First Minister said it was the Government’s ambition to get jabs into the arms of all 4.4 million eligible Scots by September at the latest.
Though she warned the target was dependent on supply of the vaccine.
READ MORE: Covid: Gregor Smith warns vaccine misinformation is among 'biggest dangers' Scotland faces
Speaking at the Scottish Government’s daily coronavirus briefing, the First Minister revealed that 264,991 people have so far had their first dose.
That’s up from 224,840 on Friday, roughly averaging 13,506 jabs a day.
That figures includes nearly all of Scotland’s care home residents.
Sturgeon said Scotland was now seeking to “rapidly expand” its vaccination programme.
She said everyone over the age of 65 should have received the jab by the beginning of March.
Sturgeon said Scotland was “on track” to complete first dose vaccinations for those in the two highest priority groups by the start of February.
“That includes care home residents – which I’m pleased to say are almost complete already – health and care staff and everybody who is aged over 80,” she said.
Sturgeon added that by the middle of February they hoped to have completed first doses for those aged over 70 and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable.
In addition, it was hoped everyone aged over 65 will have had their first dose of the vaccine by the beginning of March.
But she warned that this was “subject to getting the supplies we need.”
Over the weekend, the UK government said it aimed to get every adult in the UK vaccinated by September.
Asked if that was also the Scottish Government’s ambition, Sturgeon said: “We would broadly be of the same aspiration there.”
She added: “Is it a target we can meet? Can we be done sooner than that? That will depend on the supplies that we get and that is true of the UK government as well.
“Now, obviously we put out some indications of supply expectation last week and have removed them from the public domain again, for reasons of concern. So we think that if all the supplies that we're expecting come through, then I would be hopeful that we will be in the position of doing the whole adult population in that kind of timeline, but the caveat here is always going to be supply dependent, as well of course, as making sure that we've got the deployment plans in place.”
A total of 1429 positive coronavirus tests have been recorded in the past 24 hours, the latest figures show.
But no deaths have been recorded, meaning the death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – stands at 5305.
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