Half of Scottish population vaccinated as Sturgeon praises ‘phenomenal progress’
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Half of the population in Scotland has received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, with Nicola Sturgeon praising the programme’s “phenomenal progress”.
A total of 2,733,387 people have now received their first dose of coronavirus vaccine according to the latest Scottish Government figures, with the country’s population around 5.4 million.
It marks an increase of 11,303 from the previous day while 715,714 people have had both doses, with this figure up by 26,953 from Friday’s total.
Ms Sturgeon, who herself received a first dose of AstraZeneca on Thursday, also paid tribute to those involved in the vaccination programme.
We have met our targets to offer first doses to all nine priority groups, those most at risk from Covid, by the middle of April
The Scottish First Minister said: “This shows the phenomenal progress being made by Scotland’s vaccination programme.
“We have met our targets to offer first doses to all nine priority groups, those most at risk from Covid, by the middle of April and are well into the delivery of second doses to those groups.
“I want to pay a huge tribute to everyone who has contributed to the success of this programme, from the scientists and those who volunteered for clinical trials to the volunteer vaccinators and of course the 2.7 million people across Scotland who have rolled up their sleeves.”
The latest figures also show Scotland recorded two more deaths and a further 210 cases of the virus.
Just 1.2% of tests for Covid-19 came back as positive in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, there were 109 people in hospital on Friday who had recently been confirmed as having coronavirus – down six from the previous day’s total.
However, the number of patients requiring intensive care had increased by two, to 18.
A total of 7,642 people in Scotland have now died within 28 days of testing positive for the disease.
