A VACCINE supply “dip” in the next two weeks means working age Scots who have underlying health conditions will not receive their first dose of the jag as “quickly as originally intended”.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has warned that the current rate of around 400,000 vaccinations given out in Scotland each week will be cut in half while Pfizer carries out planned upgrades to its manufacturing processes in order to scale up for global demand.
READ MORE: Coronavirus Scotland: Vaccine supplies will 'dip' later this month
Speaking to Holyrood’s Covid-19 Committee, Ms Freeman said that the Scottish Government remains on target to vaccinate with the first shot, those over 70 years old, those who are classed as clinically vulnerable and those over 65 years old by the beginning of March.
But she warned that “constraints in vaccine supply will mean that from this weekend, we will have to slow down delivery for a period of time”.
Ms Freeman added: “We need to remodel our delivery to ensure that we carry enough supply to meet both first doses and increased second doses.
“To manage this reduced supply, from next week, we will need to reduce the numbers of first doses to between 150,000 and 200,000 until supply increases – which we hope will be very soon.
“The impact of having to remodel means that we will not rollout as quickly to group six as we had originally intended.”
Group six on the UK-wide JCVI priority list for the vaccine is “all individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality”, but “clinically extremely vulnerable individuals” will receive their first dose by the end of the month, being in group four of the strategy.
Ms Freeman added: “Right at this point, in order to take into account a dip in vaccine supply, the importance of second doses, then we will slow down our rollout of group six – which we would have planned, otherwise, to get to, very quickly.
“We will begin towards the end of February, into the start of March, in a phased way, to start booking appointments for group six – one of the most complex.”
Caroline Lamb, chief executive of NHS Scotland, told MSPs that “we do expect supplies to increase” after the dip, but warned ”we then see another dip, just for a week, towards the end of March”.
Earlier, chair of the BMA Scottish GPs committee, Dr Andrew Buist, praised the Scottish Government for prioritising care home residents unlike in England – and said that early issues over distribution appear to have improved.
READ MORE: Warning vaccine programme will need to slow to 'stockpile' second doses
Dr Buist warned that originally, “the model at the time seemed overly-complex" and “a little bit clunky”.
He added: “The situation, I believe, appears to be improving on the ground.
“The supply, which was coming through in quite small amounts early on has improved and we are in a better position to vaccinate.”
Commitee convener, Donald Cameron, asked Dr Buist about the “crunch point over demand” when second doses will need to start being administered to be given to some of the first people who received the vaccine within the 12-week timeframe.
Dr Buist warned “it’s going to become more challenging”, adding that “the pace is going to pick up”.
He added:” I was very supportive of the Scottish Government for the model we chose which is different from England.
“In England the GP practices were given access to the vaccines and asked to get on with delivering mass vaccination programmes. I felt that was the wrong approach and so did the Scottish Government.”
He said that the strategy used north of the border was a “much more flexible and collaborative model”.
He added: “The reason for that is that general practice does not have the capacity to do this alone.
“While we want to be part of this, we cannot walk away from our core responsibilities of being available for people who continue to get unwell and need to see us.”
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