First Minister hails vaccination milestone amid surge in covid cases

Half of Scots are now fully vaccinated against coronavirus, Nicola Sturgeon announced, but urged caution, warning of NHS pressures if the current case surge continues.

She said Scotland recorded four coronavirus patient deaths and 3,823 cases in the past 24 hours.

The death toll under this daily measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - is now at 7,726.

The daily test positivity rate is 10.8%, up from 10.5% the previous day.

The number of people in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19 has risen by 10 in the same period to 285, and of these 19 patients are intensive care, a rise of three.

Ms Sturgeon told a Scottish Government coronavirus briefing: "We are continuing to deal with a surge in new cases; it is heavily driven by the dominance of the Delta variant.

"Vaccination is the reason that this surge in cases hasn't led to the reimposition of a strict lockdown.

"I think it would have done that at any earlier stage in this pandemic but now - and this is the positive thing about vaccination - the vaccines are doing much of the work that lockdown measures previously had to do.''

Ms Sturgeon said 3,831,770 people in Scotland have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 2,737,347 have received their second dose.

She added: "Today's vaccine numbers actually take us across quite a significant milestone.

"More than 60% of those eligible for the vaccine have now had both doses, but as of today, more than 50% of the entire population is now fully vaccinated.

"That is an important milestone and one that will be increasing our levels of protection against this virus.''

The First Minister urged any unvaccinated Scots and those who have waited at least eight weeks for a second dose to get a vaccination after the announcement walk-in centres will be open across mainland Scotland from Monday.

Despite the effectiveness of the vaccines, she insisted the Scottish Government was not complacent'' about the record numbers of new Covid-19 infections as she issued a plea for "renewed caution''.

She said: "I want to assure you that we are not being complacent about this.

"Our priority, our plan, is to extend vaccine coverage as quickly as possible. That is our best line of protection.

"But we will also be encouraging renewed caution on behalf of the population while we do so, because our biggest vulnerability just now is that - notwithstanding the success of the (vaccine rollout) programme - there are still quite a lot of people who do not yet have the protection of both doses.

"That's why we're making it easier for people to get vaccinated, and I want to stress that we are vaccinating as quickly as supplies and the clinical advice on the timing of second doses allows us to do.

"And while we do this, our collective priority must be to do all we can to slow the virus down, and that really matters.''

She added: "If cases rise as they have been doing, we will see pressure on the NHS.''

She also confirmed additional money will be given to Scotland's health boards for costs caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

She said: "Further funding for Covid matters is being made available today to help boards across the country - almost £380 million is being allocated to help with additional costs this year.

"That includes the cost of the vaccination programme, the Test and Protect system and PPE.

"This is on top of the £1.7 billion for Covid allocated last year to health boards and to health and social care partnerships.''

Hear all the latest news from across Edinburgh, the Lothians, Fife and Falkirk on the hour, every hour, at Forth 1. Listen on FM, via our Radio Forth app, on your DAB radio, online at Forth1.com, or say ‘Play Forth 1’ on your Smart Speaker.