Covid in Scotland: Oxford vaccine to be rolled out from Monday

The wider rollout of the Oxford Covid vaccine will begin from Monday at more than 1,100 locations across Scotland.

Scotland has been given an initial allocation of more than 500,000 doses to use in January.

Nicola Sturgeon said she expected the country would have access to over 900,000 doses of vaccines, including both the Oxford and Pfizer jabs, by the end of the month.

More than 110,000 people had received the Pfizer vaccine so far.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has already been administered in the Tayside, Lothian, Orkney and Highlands health board areas but this week will see it being used at vaccination centres across the whole country.

Those aged 80 or older will be among the first people in the community to get the Oxford vaccination and will be contacted by their health board for appointments.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: "We have over 1,100 vaccination sites, including over 750 GP practices with a growing core of over 3,000 trained vaccinators to deliver the vaccine.

"When it is your turn to be vaccinated you will be contacted by your local health board and I urge you to please take up the offer. Please do not contact your GP but wait for your letter or phone call.

"As ever, we are dependent on the vaccine supply and we continue to explore all possible options to speed up the delivery of all vaccines and bring forward timescales where possible."

Scotland has an allocation of 533,640 doses of the Oxford vaccine from the UK Government for the month of January.

More details on the supply levels and the next phase of the rollout will be published in the coming days by the Scottish government.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said: "Vaccines are the light at the end of the tunnel.

"The UK government has procured and paid for millions of vaccine doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine for people in all parts of the UK.

"The Scottish government and NHS Scotland now need to get that supply of jabs into as many people's arms as soon as possible."