Nicola Sturgeon hails 'heroic' achievement of over a million Scots vaccinated despite dreadful weather

Nicola Sturgeon today hailed more than a million Scots turning out in bad weather to get their Covid vaccinations as a “heroic” achievement.

Nicola Sturgeon was speaking at the daily coronavirus briefing

Speaking at the daily coronavirus briefing, the First Minister thanked all those who had made their way through the snow to deliver the jags and to receive them.

She said: "The bad weather has been a real concern for us this week. However, as of 8.30am I can tell you that 1,048,747 people in Scotland have now received their first dose of the vaccine. That is an increase of 63,178 since yesterday – and that is another record: it is the highest daily total that has been achieved so far.

"And when you think about the truly dreadful weather that most of the country is experiencing right now, which means that many of those administering and receiving the jags will have had to brave extreme elements and deep snow to get to vaccination centres I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to describe this as a heroic achievement.”

She said the fact that more than a million people had now received their first dose of the vaccine was highly significant.

"It means we have now vaccinated more than 23 per cent of the adult population and even more importantly most of them are in the groups we know are most vulnerable to becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid. So it’s that that gives us real hope that even if we don’t see the vaccine having an immediate significant impact on transmission of the virus we will start see it start to reduce serious illness and deaths.

"I am immensely grateful to everyone who is helping deliver this programme in the most difficult of circumstances and to everyone who is turning up in such huge numbers to receive a first dose.”

She said first doses had now been administered to 99.9 per cent of residents in older people’s care homes, 97 per cent of over-80s in the community, 87 per cent of 75-79-year-olds and 54 per cent of 70-74-year-olds.

"We remain on course to give first doses to everybody over 70 and everybody with a serious clinical vulnerability by the middle of February.”

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