The Scottish Conservatives have urged The Scottish Government to “pull out all the stops” and speed up the vaccine booster rollout with new mass vaccination centres and drop-in clinics.

Ahead of the First Minister’s Covid update to MSPs at the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, Douglas Ross repeated the party’s repeated calls for mass vaccination centres, which he claims the government have so far refused to bring back because of concerns about staffing numbers.

The Scottish Conservatives have previously said that mass vaccination centres should be rolled out at town halls across Scotland, if clinics on the scale of the Hydro or P&J Live are not possible.

The Scottish Conservative Leader said: “For more than a month, the Scottish Conservatives have been calling for the reopening of mass vaccination centres to speed up the vaccine booster rollout.

“The pace of the rollout across Scotland and the UK is already quick – but it’s essential that we pull out all the stops to deliver even more jags.

“Mass vaccination centres were game-changing in delivering the first round of Covid jags. The number of jags getting into people’s arms went through the roof once those venues were opened.

“The rapid rollout of mass vaccine centres and more drop-in clinics is now a necessity. It is mission critical that the booster jag programme accelerates to win the race between the vaccine and the virus.

“We urge the Scottish Government to do whatever it takes to increase the pace of the booster jag rollout because that is likely to be the crucial difference between avoiding or introducing stricter restrictions.

“In Tuesday’s Covid update, we need Nicola Sturgeon to launch a full-scale mobilisation of every available member of staff and volunteer to accelerate the booster jag scheme urgently.”

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.