Coronavirus – vaccination figures to be published daily from Monday

The First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, confirmed at Thursday’s daily briefing that the number of people vaccinated on a daily basis will be reported each day on the Public Health Scotland website.

The new figures will be added there from Monday 11 January 2021, despite saying previously that this would be too much of a burden to gather the figures and report them. At present, the Public Health Scotland has details of cases in local health board areas and areas of towns and cities on its interactive dashboard. As at today’s date the areas of Edinburgh which have the highest 7 day positive rate per 100,000 population of 400+ are Corstorphine, Corstorphine South, Craigentinny, East Craigs South, Gilmerton South and the Murrays, Granton South and Wardieburn, Inverleith, Goldenacre and Warriston, Leith (Albert Street). Liberton West and Braid Hills, Mortonhall and Alnwickhill, Niddrie, Ratho, Ingliston and Gogar, Restalrig (Loganlea) and Craigentinny West and South Gyle.

There are four areas where the virus is defined as suppressed – Balgreen and Roseburn, Comely Bank, Mountcastle and New Town East and Gayfield.

From 8 December 2020 to 3 January 2021, 113,459 people received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccination. Click on the image below for more information.

The Scottish Conservatives have made consistent calls for the information to be released and leader, Douglas Ross said: “We’re pleased to hear that the government have finally listened to the repeated Scottish Conservative calls for daily vaccination figures.

“Publishing these numbers will increase transparency and give the public confidence that progress is being made in our fight against Covid-19.

“We now need to hear more about how the rollout is progressing across local health boards to prevent any postcode lottery from emerging and to make sure every part of Scotland is getting the same access to the vaccine.”

Call for vaccinations for key court workers

Amanda Millar, President of the Law Society of Scotland has responded to concerns raised by solicitors about attending court during the current Covid-19 lockdown.

Ms Millar said: “We want to ensure that the courts can continue to function safely during this period of lockdown. A number of solicitors have raised concerns with us about their ability to play a full and effective part in the court process when representing their clients as a result of the new measures that have been introduced this week.

“These concerns include a lack of suitable provision within some courts for consultation with clients, sanitisation supplies and inadequate sanitisation of court rooms between use, as well as clarity on the process for members to raise specific Covid-19 safety concerns. While it has been suggested that consultations should take place outwith the court building to maintain social distancing, there are unavoidable situations where consultations will require to take place shortly before or during a hearing and there currently seems to be no suitable provision for this.

“We do not expect anyone to put their health at risk. We are in contact with The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service to alert them to the issues that have been raised with us and want to continue to take a collaborative approach to ensuring that all necessary health and safety measures can be put in place consistently across the court estate to protect those who are attending or work in our courts.

“It’s vital that the courts continue to run during the pandemic and we have also written to the Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing to request that court practitioners are among those prioritised to receive the vaccine.”