Covid in Scotland: Government aim to vaccinate all adults 'in summer'
- Published
Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman has said her ambition is to have every adult vaccinated for Covid "in the summer".
The Scottish government had set a September target to vaccinate all over-18s.
Ms Freeman told BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show that it was "not sensible" to give specific dates as it depends on supplies remaining unhindered.
On Sunday a further seven deaths were recorded as well as 584 new cases.
Official figures also showed 839,266 people had received the first dose of the Covid vaccination - an increase of 52,839 on Saturday.
The Scottish government previously said its vaccination programme was "exceeding expectations" after figures revealed 93% of over-80s had received a vaccination by its target date.
Once all the priority groups outlined by Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) have been completed, Scotland's vaccine deployment plan moves on to the rest of the population.
Ms Freeman said: "Our ambition is to get through all those 4.5m adults, 18 and over, in the summer.
"At this point it is not very sensible to give specific dates because there are a number of unknowns, partly what the JCVI tell us and partly about supplies.
"But what is the case, is that our infrastructure to do that is there, and we have the vaccinators, we have the support staff, we have the local and the regional centres able to do it.
"As fast as we get supplies we will be vaccinating."
Ms Freeman warned that Scotland must remain "cautious" about the new Covid variants but stressed that the current vaccines are "very effective".
A record 52,839 vaccinations in 🏴 yesterday 👏
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) February 7, 2021
839,226 have now had first dose, inc 99.5% of older care home residents, 90% of staff in older adult care homes, 94%+ of over 80s living in community, 64% of those aged 75-79 and 26% of 70-74 yr olds. On track to hit all targets.
The health secretary also told the programme that the reopening of schools was the top priority for easing the lockdown.
She added: "Our children and young people have suffered a great deal."
The latest Scottish government data shows 108 people are in intensive care with recently confirmed Covid, nine less than on Saturday.
Hospital numbers are also down - by 19 - to 1,710.
But the test positivity rate has increased in the last 24 hours from 5.9% to 6.9%.
Meanwhile, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said the UK must remain alert for new strains of Covid.
His comments come after early trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid jab suggested it gives limited protection against mild disease caused by the South Africa variant.
AstraZeneca also said it had not yet determined whether the vaccine protects against severe disease caused by this variant.
Mr Wallace told The Sunday Show: "We have to be aware that the lessons we have learned from the past year are not something to be put on a shelf and forgotten.
"This will be an ongoing challenge to the world, how we deal with Covid.
"There is no such thing as a magic wand, this is about managing outbreaks, managing infections and making sure that we constantly develop our vaccines."