SEVENTY more military personnel may be deployed to Scotland to help deliver Covid vaccine and boosters, The National has been told.
They are in addition to 115 staff from across the armed forces who are currently assisting with the vaccination programme across 11 health boards, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said.
Initially it was thought the 70 extra personnel was a firm commitment, but a spokesman later said: "Seventy more military personnel may be sent to Scotland to help deliver the Covid vaccines. They will start after a period of training."
READ MORE: New Covid restrictions in Scotland are now inevitable, warns Humza Yousaf
The development comes after the First Minister announced she wanted all eligible adults in Scotland to be offered the booster by the end of December.
Doctors and scientists believe current vaccines are not as effective against the new Omicron Covid variant as previous variants. However their efficiacy is significantly improved once a person has received a third booster jag.
Earlier today Scotland's Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said the Scottish Government would be asking the military for more help in scaling up the vaccination programme.
Yousaf said a new target announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Sunday night to offer boosters to all eligible adults by the end of the year will be "extremely challenging".
Speaking about the impact on the health service of speeding up the vaccine booster rollout, Yousaf said: "We're going to have to strain every sinew that we possibly can in order to ensure we meet (the target).
"That includes potentially having to move NHS staff away from other core duties to do this."
He added that there needs to be a "huge increase" in the number of daily doses being administered from the current level of approximately 40,000 to an estimated 70,000 per day.
A total of 4,364,519 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, 3,976,670 have received their second dose, and 2,154,571 have received a third dose or booster.
Ahead of the First Minister's coronavirus statement to Holyrood on Tuesday, the Scottish Conservatives reiterated calls for mass vaccination centres.
"For more than a month, the Scottish Conservatives have been calling for the reopening of mass vaccination centres to speed up the vaccine booster rollout," Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, said.
READ MORE: Omicron Scotland: Questions over indyref2 timing as pandemic 'could last until 2025'
"The rapid rollout of mass vaccine centres and more drop-in clinics is now a necessity. It is mission critical that the booster jag programme accelerates to win the race between the vaccine and the virus."
He said speeding up the booster jag rollout is "likely to be the crucial difference between avoiding or introducing stricter restrictions".
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton, said: "After pestering the Health Secretary for months we finally have an ambitious target for ramping up booster vaccines but we also need to see frontline NHS staff given the additional resources they need, guarantees of financial protections for small businesses, particularly in hospitality, and measures to ensure that everyone who needs it can access mental health support during these difficult times."
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