FM pledges vaccine roll out as soon as doses arrive

Coronavirus vaccinations in Scotland will start as soon as supplies arrive, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister commented after the UK became the first country in the world to approve the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, paving the way for it to start being administered.

The jab has been shown in studies to be 95% effective and works in all age groups.

The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine, enough to vaccinate 20 million people, with about 10 million doses expected to be available for use in the UK shortly for priority groups, including healthcare workers.

Ms Sturgeon said the vaccine's approval was "the best news in a long time''.

She tweeted that the Scottish Government is "ready to start vaccinations as soon as supplies arrive''.

Scotland's chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith said it is "wonderful news'' that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved the vaccine.

He said on Twitter that it is just the first of several vaccines in the pipeline, and its approval "begins to change everything for our future''.

National clinical director Professor Jason Leitch tweeted that "science, collaboration and logistics has got us to this day''.

He added: "It's a very important moment. There will be months of roll out until normality but it's a crucial step. Thanks to all.''

Approval of the vaccine comes nine months after coronavirus arrived in Scotland, forcing the country into lockdown and leading to restrictions being imposed on people's lives and businesses to help control the spread.

Public health expert Professor Linda Bauld said she is "delighted'' the first of the vaccines scientists have been working on has been approved for use.

She added it will be a "major logistical exercise'' to vaccinate the country's adult population.

Prof Bauld said: "After hearing the results of these four vaccines we have early preliminary results for, then just waiting for the regulators to act, and the MHRA has been looking at data on the Pfizer vaccine for some time, now they are able to approve that for use and we have done that incredibly quickly.

"It's really encouraging news.''

She said as many as 4.4 million people in Scotland could be vaccinated, adding the Scottish Government hopes to vaccinate at least one million by the end of January.

Prof Bauld added: "Other vaccines will get approval now, I would be pretty confident the AstraZeneca/Oxford one will as well, so Pfizer will not be the only show on the road, if that makes sense.

"But I would imagine we will see things gearing up very quickly in the next few days.''

Speaking about when life could become more normal, she added: I would be very optimistic that by the spring there will be much more we can do.

"It's going to take some months though to get this to everybody and we need to keep that in mind.''

Other politicians welcomed the vaccine's approval, with Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard describing it as a "wonderful development, which gives hope to us all after nine months of pandemic tragedy and hardship''.

He expressed his thanks to all those involved and said: "We must now ensure that vaccines are rolled out safely but quickly across Scotland, including to those living and working in our care homes.''

Conservative health spokesman Donald Cameron said: "It's fantastic news that the UK has become the first country in the world to approve a Covid vaccine.''

He called for the First Minister to make an urgent statement to Holyrood, setting out how the vaccines will be rolled out.

Mr Cameron said: "There is no room for error in the delivery of this potentially game-changing vaccine that could allow us to get back to some degree of normality sooner than expected.

"So we have submitted an urgent question and a request for an urgent statement from the First Minister about exactly how this vaccine will be delivered by the Scottish Government.

"The First Minister said yesterday that Cabinet had reviewed plans for the vaccine.

"These plans must now be published and revealed to Parliament so they can be scrutinised immediately.''

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