SCOTLAND will have to scale back its coronavirus vaccination programme over the next two weeks as supplies into the UK dip, Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has said.
She said Scotland should hit its target of vaccinating 400,000 adults a week ahead of schedule this week, but the programme will then “need to scale back a bit”.
There will be a drop in supply across all four nations of the UK, Freeman said, which is being caused by work being carried out by Pfizer – the manufacturer of one of the approved vaccines.
The company is having to temporarily reduce output as part of an overall effort to increase manufacturing capacity amid worldwide demand for vaccines.
Freeman told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “This is about the supply into the UK, it is not about distribution around the UK. So it will affect all four nations of the UK. That will reduce our expected supply next week and the week after by about somewhere between 120,000 and 190,000 doses a week overall over the two vaccines.
“And what that means is we need to scale back on the pace we have reached this week – we will reach over 400,000 doses this week, which is a couple of weeks earlier than we said we would, but we will need to scale back a bit.
“We are working that through and then of course supplies start coming in again.”
She stressed the Scottish Government is “still confident” it will meet targets set for vaccinating all those aged over 70 by Monday, as well as the goal of vaccinating those aged 65 and above by early March.
Addressing the supply issue, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said during the daily coronavirus briefing: “By Sunday, we expect to give vaccines to 70,000 more people than we originally anticipated in the deployment plan. This is due to the higher vaccine take-up rates than we had anticipated.
“These two factors combined with the need to preserve some stocks for second doses, mean we have to ensure we don’t schedule more appointments than our vaccine supplies allow.”
She also said that Scotland is still on track to meet all targets set out – including that all over-50s should expect to receive their first dose by mid-May.
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