Nicola Sturgeon hits out at Alister Jack for revealing vaccine figures

On Sunday, the Scotland Secretary told the BBC that 981,000 doses had been allocated to Scotland so far but only 573,907 had been used.

However, speaking at the regular coronavirus briefing, the First Minister revealed there had been agreement on a four nations call held on Saturday “that nobody would do that”.

Earlier this month, the Scottish Government was forced to withdraw its vaccine deployment plan because it included the figures for weekly supplies from the manufacturers Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna.

The Department of Health said the information was commercially confidential, and could lead to firms coming under pressure from other countries.

However, much to the frustration of Scottish ministers, the UK Government has repeatedly shared details of supplies with press.

During last Thursday’s First Minister’s Questions, the SNP leader told MSPs she would make the numbers public because the UK Government had seemingly been “quite happy to brief these figures through spin”.

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Asked if that was still the plan, the First Minister said: “I just want us all to get on with vaccination, but I’m not having my government briefed against with figures that we have been asked not to share by UK Government ministers who are doing it for political reasons.”

She said the Scottish Government planned on releasing details of “what we’ve got now and where it is in the supply chain”.

However, she said the UK Government was still asking her not to do that.

“So, I’m prepared because I’m a reasonable person to see if we can come to an agreement because I don’t want these stupid spats,” she said.

“I really think we’ve all got far more to be getting on with right now. But equally, I don’t think it’s a fair position for the Scottish Government to be put into.”

The First Minister also defended the speed of the roll-out of Scotland’s vaccine programme.

On Sunday, just 9628 patients received their first vaccine dose – the fewest since the Scottish Government began publishing figures on January 11.

For consecutive Sundays, the number of vaccinations has fallen to below half the previous day’s figure.

Sturgeon said she didn’t know why there was a dip. She ruled out “lagging data” and said: “It looks to me as if, for some reason, we are simply falling off a bit on a Sunday ... I can’t tell you any more than that right now in terms of the explanation.

“I’m absolutely clear to the team that if that is an issue then we obviously need to resolve that because we need to make sure we’re going at a certain pace every single day.”

Sturgeon also said the vaccination programme was “ahead of schedule” to give vaccines to all over-80s by Friday, with 80% of their first doses administered so far.

In care homes, 98% of residents and 88% of staff have now received a dose of the vaccine.

Vaccination of the over-70s is now under way, with 14% of people aged 75-79 having had their first jag.

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“We’re focusing on working through this methodically, starting with the most vulnerable and getting through these population groups as quickly as possible,” Sturgeon said.

She said the new vaccination centres that opened at Aberdeen’s P&J Live venue and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) yesterday “help us to accelerate that”.

Between the two of them they should be able to inoculate an extra 27,000 people per week.

Asked why Scotland was rolling it out its jags at a slower pace than across the rest of the UK, Sturgeon said: “There’s a long way to go in this programme and it’s really important we do it methodically, sustainably – concentrating on the most vulnerable first.

“That’s what we have been doing and I think as we go through this week we will see further evidence that is what is happening.”

She also claimed the Government had “adapted our estimates” since the Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said a million people could be vaccinated by the end of January.

Sturgeon pointed out that there were no approved vaccines in when that commitment was made back in November.

“There were assumptions being made at that point that have had to be, for all countries across the UK, refined on the basis of the actual supply, not just the totality of those supplies but the actual phasing of those supplies over the period,” she added.

“We’ll continue to look to pick up pace, look to address issues where we don’t think it’s going as fast as it needs to ... but we’re cracking on with this just as quickly as we are able to do.”

There were six deaths recorded yesterday, taking the total under that measurement to 6112. Another 848 cases were recorded, with a positivity rate of 9.5%.

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Some 1958 people were in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19, 17 more than Sunday. Of those, 143 people were in intensive care, the same as Sunday.

The First Minister said 244 of the new cases were in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 167 in Lanarkshire, and 111 in Lothian.

The remaining cases were spread across nine other health board areas. Sturgeon is due to update

Holyrood on the current state of the pandemic today, though she admitted that there was likely to be little change made to the current lockdown restrictions.

It’s also likely schools will remain closed beyond the middle of the month, though Sturgeon has previously suggested some pupils could head back to class soon.