Boost to army numbers delivering vaccine in Scotland

More than 350 additional armed forces personnel are being deployed to support Scotland’s coronavirus testing and vaccine delivery programmes.

In the largest single deployment of military personnel in Scotland since the start of the pandemic, the extra 353 personnel will take the total number supporting the Covid response in Scotland to 466.

Around 320 will be involved in the Scottish Government’s rollout of asymptomatic testing from February 15.

As a result, 170 personnel from the 39 Engineer Regiment, based at Kinloss Barracks, and 75 personnel from both the 2nd Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, based at Leuchars Station, will now spend a week planning and preparing before helping administer the tests the following week.

Private McLean from 3 Medical Regiment administers a vaccine to a patient.

An additional 33 defence medical staff, from across all three services, will join the 57 already working as part of the Vaccine Quick Reaction Force.

Split across three vaccination teams, military personnel will assist NHS staff at vaccination centres in Dumfries and Galloway and Fife.

Currently there are also 32 planning and liaison staff working with NHS Scotland and the Scottish Government. A further 24 logistic support staff, mostly from Edinburgh-based 3rd Battalion The Rifles, are also assisting health boards to run vaccination centres in Grampian, Dumfries and Galloway, Borders and Lothian.

The 98 members of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, who had been deployed to help set up 80 vaccine centres across Scotland, will complete their task on Monday when they hand over the sites to NHS Scotland, and will no longer be part of the army’s Covid force from then.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said the armed forces were playing a “key role in the fight against Covid-19 in Scotland”.

He said: “From co-ordinating the emergency response in the early days of the pandemic to setting up testing sites in the summer and assisting with the first vaccination centres, we are grateful for all their efforts to keep us safe and help defeat the virus.”

Across the UK there are more than 5,200 personnel committed to winter and Covid-19 operations, supporting 80 different tasks in the UK and abroad. This includes the vaccine rollout, NHS support and community testing across the UK.

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