SCOTLAND is expected to hit the milestone of one million Covid-19 vaccines administered over the coming week, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister, speaking at the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing, revealed 866,823 people have been given a first dose of a vaccine, up 27,557 from Sunday.

This is three times the number vaccinated last Sunday, with around 80,000 people receiving a first dose over the weekend.

This is more than double the figure of the previous weekend, Sturgeon said.

The First Minister added: “In the past seven days, more than 290,000 people have received their first dose – which is approximately a 140,000 more than were vaccinated in the previous week.

“Over the course of this week, we expect to hit the milestone of 1 million vaccines."

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A total of 99.6% of residents in older care homes have received a first jab, which is "a scale of uptake which none of us really believed would be possible", the First Minister commented.

She added that more than 95% of over 80-year-olds living in the community have had their first dose of a vaccine and almost 67% of people aged 75-79 and 29% of people aged 70-75 have received a first jag.

Scotland's vaccination programme "undoubtedly picked up pace considerably over the course of the last week", Sturgeon said.

But she warned that the first dose of a vaccine does not begin to have a protective effect until around two or three weeks after it is received.

She explained: “We don't yet know that the vaccine will stop you from getting Covid or transmitting it to someone else, although there is growing evidence that vaccination does have some impact on transmission".

The First Minister told the Scottish Government's coronavirus briefing that everyone including those who get the first dose of the vaccine need to be careful and stick to lockdown restrictions.