THE success of Scotland’s vaccine roll-out has shown the positives of remaining in the UK, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has insisted.
As of yesterday, 2,463,069 people had received their first dose and a further 354,756 had been given their second coronavirus jag.
The Scottish Government has repeatedly said it is on track to inoculate all of the priority groups set out by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), including all over-50s and those who are vulnerable, by mid-April.
Speaking ahead of the announcement of his party’s plans for the NHS, Ross said: “The vaccination roll-out has been an incredible success story across Scotland and the UK. It has shown the overwhelming benefits of us working together across our Union to emerge from the Covid crisis.
“My thanks go to our heroic NHS staff, volunteers in our communities and our armed forces who have all stepped up to deliver this astonishing achievement.
“We are seeing, with reduced hospitalisations and deaths, the positive effects of the vaccine and how it will help us return to a sense of normality in the coming months.”
“The SNP are in denial about how much worse off we would be if they had got their way and we were left out of the world-leading UK vaccine scheme.
“The vaccine roll-out has exposed another glaring weakness in the nationalist argument for independence and the SNP’s plan to put another divisive referendum over our recovery.”
Sandesh Gulhane, a Tory candidate for Glasgow and a GP, also urged people who are offered the vaccine to take it up. He said: “I would encourage everyone to take up the vaccine when it is your turn, particularly those in our BAME communities. It really can help save your life.”
Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, the Scottish LibDems are calling for urgent action to prevent violence against women and girls.
Willie Rennie set out his party’s equalities policies as he visited the Hindu Mandir in Edinburgh. The party wants to see a commission on tackling violence against women set up as a priority in the next parliament.
It is also calling for a ban on sexual and gender conversion therapies aswell as a pay audit of all public organisations to assess the experiences of ethnic minority and disabled employees.
Rennie said: “When I’m out running up hills before dawn or canvassing in the evening, I rarely have to fear for my safety.
“That should be the experience for everyone, but it’s not.
“It is why a priority in the next parliament needs to be a commission on violence against women and girls with cross-party backing.”
Labour leader Anas Sarwar focused on cancer care, saying the backlog caused by coronavirus is now a “national emergency”. Figures released on Tuesday by Public Health Scotland (PHS) show 485 people waited more than two months to start cancer treatment after receiving an urgent referral in the last quarter of 2020.
Sarwar also said figures from PHS published last month show up to one in five cases of cancer could have been missed as a result of screening services being halted during Covid.
He has previously said the NHS should not have to choose between fighting a pandemic or treating cancer, while calling for plans to be put in place to ramp up screening and treatment services.
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