Health secretary Jeane Freeman has told the Scottish Parliament that the first wave of COVID-19 vaccinations will be delivered next month if approved by regulatory bodies.
Priority will be given to frontline NHS workers, care home staff and residents, over 80s, and those delivering the vaccination programme.
“The current advice is that we then work through those aged over 65 and those under 65 who are at an additional clinical risk and then we move to the wider population.”
Everyone aged over 18 will eventually be offered the vaccine by Spring 2021, confirms Freeman.
The vaccine will be administered in two doses and will be delivered in mobile sites, GP surgeries and in people’s homes if necessary.
2,000 vaccinators and support staff will be required to ensure that one million Scots are vaccinated by the end of January.
The UK has bought 40 million vaccine doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and five million from Moderna, both of which have proven over 90 per cent efficient.
However, Freeman admits that there are still some gaps in knowledge “given we do not know how long protection will last.”
She told the Scottish Parliament: “The important thing is that when we deliver these vaccines, it will be on the basis that they offer some form of protection, even if we don’t know exactly how much protection that is.”
Featured Image Credit: Fraser Bremner/Scottish Daily Mail
News Editor at Brig Newspaper
Fourth year Journalism Studies at the University of Stirling
