Coronavirus in Scotland: Jason Leitch says he expects Scotland will have annual coronavirus vaccines for 'some time'

Scotland’s national clinical director has warned vaccines do not mean the pandemic is over and that “annual” jags may be required for some time to come.

Speaking at the daily coronavirus briefing on Friday, Professor Jason Leitch admitted he could not be sure when the public would be able to stop taking the vaccine.

He said: "The vaccine we have got just now will probably give some level of protection against new variants, but we will just up it and make it better with those boosters.

"I don’t know, and nobody does, but if I had to gamble I would say we're probably having annual Covid-19 vaccines for some time to come.”

Jason Leitch says he expects Scotland will have annual coronavirus vaccines for some time.

His comment comes after the announcement on Thursday by Health Secretary Jeane Freeman that the rollout of a Covid-19 vaccine to Scots with underlying health conditions and unpaid carers would be delayed due to an expected dip in supply.

She explained a “combination of circumstances – remarkably high uptake, a temporary reduction in supply from Pfizer and the need to ensure people can receive second doses on time means we need to reduce the number of appointments we schedule over the next few weeks2.

Ms Freeman said: “The uptake we have seen so far has been both remarkable and very welcome.

“As soon as supply improves, our programme will scale up again.”

She said the vaccination programme in Scotland remained on course to hit its targets.

The issue has meant Scotland received delivery of almost 200,000 fewer doses of Pfizer vaccine than expected on Tuesday this week.

Lower supply combined with moving through that supply particularly quickly this week, will mean a slowing down of the rollout in the latter two weeks of February, Ms Freeman said.

Looking further into the future of the vaccination programme, it has been reported that key workers will be given priority for the Covid-19 vaccine once it has been offered to over-50s.

Teachers and police officers will be among the key worker groups to start being offered the vaccine after the first nine priority groups, in a bid to reduce transmission of the virus.

The confirmation came as Ms Freeman revealed the Scottish Government had received reports of people breaching coronavirus restrictions around funerals, which limits the number of people attending to 20.

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