NICOLA Sturgeon says Scotland is "firmly on track" to finish vaccinating all over-70s by the end of the weekend.
The First Minister said a record 63,178 people had been immunised against Covid yesterday as she praised the "heroic efforts" of the public and vaccinators in the face of wintry conditions.
She said: "It means that we have now vaccinated more than 23% of the adult population – and even more importantly, many of them, most of them, are in the groups that we know are most vulnerable to becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid.
"So it’s that that gives us real hope that - even if we don’t see the vaccine having an immediate significant impact on transmission of the virus - we will start to see it reduce serious illness and deaths."
READ MORE: Vaccine rollout will be scaled back amid dip in supply
The First Minister confirmed that 99.9% of residents in older people’s care homes have now had a first dose of Covid vaccine, along with 97% of over 80 year olds and 87% of 75 to 79-year-olds living in the community.
In the 70 to 74 age group, 54% have been vaccinated.
The pace of vaccination has accelerated in Scotland this week, and is now the fastest in the UK with a daily average over the past seven days 890 vaccinations per 100,000 people compared to 617 in England, which is now the slowest.
"We remain on course to give first doses to everybody over 70, and everybody with a serious clinical vulnerability, by the middle of February," said Ms Sturgeon.
"By that date, many in the 65-69 year old age group will also have had the first dose of the vaccine."
Ms Sturgeon was asked during the daily Covid briefing about cases of some elderly people who are in their 70s or older, some of them shielding or housebound, who have yet to hear anything about their appointments.
She said they were "firmly on track" to hit the over-70s target by the end of Sunday
"I was extremely worried that the impact of the weather would really slow us down this week and that this target might be challenging to meet, but as we've seen in the past few days - I used the word heroic earlier on and I think it is heroic - whether you're going out to one of the centres to give the vaccine or to get it - we've seen not a slowing down but an acceleration.
READ MORE: Vaccine to be delayed for working age Scots with underlying health conditions
"So I'm confident we're on a track to meet that target. Yes in any target there may be people for a variety of reasons who are still to be done. In a massive programme you're going to get that, but we've been working really hard to minimise that."
Ms Sturgeon reiterated that people should contact her directly on her first minister's email "as a last resort".
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