Opposition say vaccine rollout is too slow

The vaccine programme in Scotland is under criticism from opposition politicians who say it is too slow.

Yesterday in Scotland the overall number of those receiving a dose of vaccine was 17,273, with first doses accounting for 2,222 of those. There could be some underreporting due to a technical difficulty with NHS Tayside figures, but the number of people vaccinated in recent weeks has regularly fallen below 30,000 each day.

Scottish Conservatives say that three key targets will be missed and that the government will fail to meet their own targets to vaccinate:

• one in three young people by 18 July
• everyone in the 40-49 age bracket by 26 July
• everyone in the 30 to 39 age bracket by 20 August.

The opposition party also claims that the Scottish Government will not meet their target of vaccinating everyone with both doses by 12 September. The gap will be around 600,000 people according to the estimates calculated by Scottish Conservatives who accuse the government of complacency.

Scottish Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Annie Wells MSP, said: “This is looking like a triple whammy of SNP failures in hitting their own key vaccine rollout targets.

“Just as the finishing line approaches, the SNP have stumbled at the crucial moment. The vaccination programme has slowed down, yet the SNP Government seem to have no answers as to how to ensure people will be vaccinated on schedule.

“Hundreds of thousands of adults are set to be left without full protection beyond when they believed they would get a second dose. The SNP became complacent and thought targets would be met without any encouragement from Ministers.

“That attitude is unacceptable and means that restrictions that are due to be lifted in the coming weeks remain under threat. That would be another hammer blow to businesses and people who have made huge sacrifices for well over a year.

“It is time for the SNP to face the reality that they will miss key target dates for the vaccination rollout. They must pull out all the stops to guarantee people will be vaccinated as quickly and as easily as possible to allow us to return to normality.”

Scottish Labour’s Health and Covid Recovery spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: “The SNP’s failure to meet this flagship target is humiliating for them – but it should worry us all.  

“The First Minister was clear that the lifting of restrictions depends on the success of the vaccine roll-out, but their failure to meet key targets raises fresh doubts.

“From the stalling vaccine programme to the collapse of test and protect, the SNP’s complacency has become the single biggest threat to our journey out of lockdown.

“With the Delta variant still rampant across Scotland, it is more important than ever that everyone gets both doses. More must be done to make sure everyone can get their second jab as quickly as possible.”

The First Minister said on 22 June that the government expected to have given second doses to all 40 to 49 year olds by Monday 26 July. Since then mobile vaccination centres have popped up in a variety of locations in an effort to offer the vaccine to more people more quickly.

According to Public Tableau figures issued by Public Health Scotland, as at 25 July 75.8% of all 40 to 49 year-olds have had a second dose (510,781 people). The number of people in the age bracket who had been given their second dose since the preceding day was 7,399. On the basis of the current daily rate it is estimated that the government will miss the target by 162,710 people.