Vaccine: Reporter says weather is a ‘real concern’ for rollout
The SNP leader has been urged to accelerate the roll-out after it emerged the country was already falling behind England in delivering vaccinations. Figures published earlier this week revealed a widening gap between the four UK nations. Around 1,100 vaccination sites opened cross Scotland last Monday, mainly at GP surgeries, but doctors said it was unclear when doses would arrive.
Another empty announcement by Nicola Sturgeon exposed
Ian Lakin, a Scottish businessman and former chairman of the pro-UK Better Together campaign, lashed out the First Minister over her vaccine plan.
He tweeted: “Another empty announcement by Nicola Sturgeon exposed.
“She promised one million doses by end January – then revised down to 560,000 and now that seems unlikely to be achieved.
“Why? Mass vaccines centres will not open until the 15th February due to a lack of a proper roll-out programme.”
Nicola Sturgeon has come under fire over Scotland’s Covid vaccine roll-out (Image: PA)
Fellow SNP critic Kevin Grant said: “Another SNP shambles to add to the ever-lengthening list.
“This one is hyper-crucial and should spell the end for those in charge.
“Vaccines are the only thing to allow us back to normal life, this couldn’t be more urgent.”
Another tweeted: “Not prepared, not competent, not bothered!”
READ MORE: SNP warns Scotland could face even tougher restrictions
Scotland is unlikely to meet its January vaccination targets (Image: PA)
Critics have accused the Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP of failing to deliver Scotland’s vaccine roll-out (Image: PA)
And another said: “Failure to prepare is preparing to fail! It’s the SNP mantra.
“They’ve had months to plan and recruit. We knew a vaccine would come, it was just a question of when.
“Didn’t prevent them from getting their ducks in a row!”
UK coronavirus cases (Image: EXPRESS.CO.UK)
Scottish Conservatives health spokesman Donald Cameron warned the daily vaccination figure of 12,500 meant the Scottish Government would miss its target of giving the injection to 560,000 by the end of January.
He said: “These figures confirm that the SNP are not moving fast enough and lagging behind their own targets.
“At the current speed, they risk falling short of expectations.
“The vaccine is our key weapon against this virus, so we will continue to push the government to accelerate their plans and focus on increasing the pace.”
Ms Sturgeon said ministers would “look at anything and everything” to get Scotland’s vaccination programme completed as quickly as possible.
She said: “I don’t rule anything out. We want to get through this programme as quickly as possible, we want everybody in the adult population to have this vaccine as quickly as possible.
“We want to get this vaccination programme completed as quickly as possible, it is not in the government’s interests to slow this down, it is in our interests to get it speeded up as far as practical.
“The sooner we get the whole population vaccinated the sooner we get back to a greater degree of normality and can start to put this virus behind us.”
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The UK has given almost 3 million people a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine so far, according to the latest government statistics.
Figures published today show England has vaccinated 2,494,371, Scotland 208,207, Wales 112,973 and Northern Ireland 102,701.
