Nicola Sturgeon has expressed her eagerness to receive her first dose of the coronavirus vaccine later this month.
The First Minister said she "can't wait", after what she called a “grim year” for everybody, as she revealed that she will receive her first vaccine injection in mid-April.
Ms Sturgeon, 50, was quick to tweet a picture of her blue envelope with the vaccine appointment after it arrived through her letterbox.
My blue envelope has arrived (it really does soften the blow of being 50!)We’re on track to offer first doses to all over 50s, unpaid carers & adults with underlying health condition by mid Apr & and all adults by end Jul (supplies permitting). My thanks to our vaccination teams pic.twitter.com/bDxjyZ9wmw
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) March 26, 2021
She said: “It’s middle of April it’s due. I can’t wait.”
She added that she has been waiting for the letter to arrive, as she was aware health service bosses in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, where she lives, had started sending out appointments to those aged over 50.
Ms Sturgeon revealed she received her vaccination appointment at the same time as her husband, SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, got his.
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She said: “Peter is a few years older than me, so I expected his to come before mine. He was getting very ‘where’s my blue envelope’.
“They actually came on the same day, and he gets his (vaccine) a day before me, at a different vaccination centre. Obviously I am in a younger cohort, which is why I am going somewhere else.”
'A grim year for everybody, including me'
Ms Sturgeon said that while she has been leading the Scottish Government’s response to the Covid-19 crisis, she has also “experienced this as a human being over the past year”.
She recalled how last year she had been unable to visit her nephew on his 18th birthday because of the virus, and said that although he had now turned 19 she had only seen him “outdoors, I think twice, in the intervening period”.
Ms Sturgeon said: “All of that, separation from family, all of the trauma, the upset that everybody is experiencing, I am not exempt from. It has been a grim year for everybody, including me.”
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She added that the vaccination campaign was “going well” in all four nations of the UK, with a high take-up rate for the jabs.
“People just want to get vaccinated,” Ms Sturgeon added.
“If I look at my Twitter feed, it is just full of people posting pictures of their blue envelopes and full of joy at getting to be vaccinated.”
As of Sunday in Scotland, 2,553,837 people in the country had received the first dose of a Covid-19.
Public Health Scotland added that 451,057 people have received the second dose.
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