NICOLA Sturgeon has accused the Tories of “briefing and spinning misleading figures” on the number of vaccine doses supplied to Scotland.

The First Minister was responding to criticism of the Scottish Government’s roll-out of the jab.

The clash came as Sturgeon confirmed that the country was set to stay in lockdown until the middle of next month. Schools and nurseries will also remain closed.

During the session in Holyrood, Scottish Tory chief Ruth Davidson said a working vaccine programme was essential to getting the country out of lockdown and pupils back in the classroom. She said that Scotland had taken receipt of 717,000 doses but more than 400,000 have yet to reach patients.

The Scottish Tory MSP said that “people across Scotland are anxious to know when they will be called” to receive the coronavirus vaccine. She raised the concerns of some constituents who are aged over 80 who had not yet been contacted about vaccinations and asked “where the hold-up is”.

In reply, the First Minister said that care home residents, and not over-80s, had been the higher priority. She stressed that all over-80s would be vaccinated before the start of February.

As such, she said, “in Scotland more than 90% of care home residents have been vaccinated, which is a higher percentage by some considerable percentage than the position in England where comparisons are being made”.

Sturgeon rebuffed the claim that Scotland is “behind its targets” for the vaccine roll-out, saying that although it is dependent on supplies, “we are on track to be vaccinating 400,000 people a week by the end of February”.

Responding to Davidson, the First Minister went on: “On supplies, and I want to be quite blunt and perhaps brutally so here Presiding Officer, we last week published detailed estimates of supply, now and well into the future.

READ MORE: WATCH: Nicola Sturgeon says UK Government had 'hissy fit' over Covid jag figures

“We put that out on a document that went on the web and was circulated. I hope I’m not about to use unparliamentary language but the UK Government had something of what I can only describe as a hissy fit about us doing that.

“So, we agreed in consultation with them to take away the publication of those supply figures. They don’t want us to be open about supply for reasons of commercial confidentiality.”

Sturgeon went on: “Even though I don’t necessarily entirely agree with the reasoning behind that, we have agreed with their request.

“And yet, what we have is the UK Government briefing and spinning misleading figures on supply, so they have to be clear about which approach they want us to take.”

Meanwhile, Public Health Scotland announced 284,582 people had received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by 8.30am yesterday, an increase of 19,591 from the previous day. It added that 3886 people have received the second dose, a rise of 188.

There were another 71 deaths of people who had contracted the virus, bringing the total under that measurement to 5376.

A further 1165 positive coronavirus tests were also recorded, Scottish Government figures show.

The daily test positivity rate is 11.1%, down from 12.3% 24 hours previously.

Earlier, the First Minister said that though the lockdown was having some impact, she still had concerns over the high levels of the virus.

She said the NHS was already coming under pressure, with around 2000 patients struggling with coronavirus patients in hospital – around 30% more than during the peak of the first wave.

Sturgeon said: “It is for all these reasons that the Cabinet decided this morning to maintain the restrictions which are currently in place.

“That means that the lockdown restrictions – including the strict stay-at-home requirement – will remain in place across mainland Scotland and some island communities until at least the middle of February.”

The restrictions and the decision to close schools will be reviewed on February 2.

Sturgeon told MSPs there could be “a phased return to in-school learning” next month.