THE Scottish Government is to publish data on vaccine supplies following talks with UK ministers and jag providers.
The UK Government has previously asked Holyrood ministers not to publish such data due to security concerns.
But speaking at the coronavirus briefing yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon said her Government has held discussions with ministers in London, the other devolved governments and vaccine suppliers on the issue for weeks.
She said: “As a result, the Scottish Government is publishing information today about the supplies we’ve received so far and from next week onwards will publish this data initially on a weekly basis.”
The data will be released on a Tuesday and will give information on vaccinations available until the previous Sunday.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon says UK Government had 'hissy fit' over Covid jag figures
The First Minister added: “We hope that regular publication of this data will be helpful to the media and to the public because it will give a fuller picture of the supplies we are receiving each week and will then allow for a better understanding and indeed closer scrutiny of the progress of the vaccination programme.”
A total of 69% of 65 to 69-year-olds have been given a first dose, and the First Minister said this means Scotland is “firmly on course to have offered a first dose to everyone in that age group by early March”.
Giving an update on the daily coronavirus figures, she highlighted “more encouraging data” as the test positivity rate fell to 3.8% – down from 5.2% on Wednesday – with 685 new cases having been reported in the previous 24 hours.
Sturgeon also hailed the latest expected R number estimate – which measures how many people on average a person with the virus infects – as “positive” as it remains below 1.
Scotland recorded 57 deaths of coronavirus patients in the 24 hours previous to the announcement, which took the toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 6885.
There were 1261 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, down 56 in 24 hours, and 95 patients were in intensive care, down four.
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