Experts are assessing whether new Covid variants are having more impact on children after 10 youngsters aged nine and under were admitted to hospital last week.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said not many children have been admitted to hospital during the pandemic but the number currently in hospital is “on the high side”.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said on Wednesday that 10 children aged zero to nine were admitted to hospital last week “because of Covid”.
READ MORE: Covid Scotland: Glasgow study finds patients given unecessary drugs
Mr Swinney, who is also Covid Recovery Secretary, said experts will be trying to determine whether there is something in the new variants that are emerging that is making it more acutely challenging for children with a greater impact on their health.
He told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland: “If you go back over the last 12 months, relatively few children have been hospitalised as a consequence of Covid so we’re now seeing obviously a concentration of hospitalisation outwith the over-50s group because the overwhelming majority of that group are vaccinated and have some protection.
“There are still some people being hospitalised with the vaccine.”
Asked whether more children are being admitted to hospital, he said: “The current numbers are on the high side, certainly over the period of Covid we’ve not seen very many children hospitalised but we’re seeing a number just now.
"So we have to look at all of these factors to determine is there something in the new variants that are emerging that is making it more acutely challenging for children with a greater health impact, and these are the issues that we keep under constant review and upon which we take clinical advice.”
Mr Swinney also said he is confident they will vaccinate all over-50s in Scotland with both doses by the end of July.
He was asked whether everyone over 50 in Scotland will be vaccinated with both doses by June 21, which is the target set in England by UK vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi.
Mr Swinney said: “We will be very close to that point but our target was to have all of the groups 1-9 completed during July, that was always our figure, that’s what we’re working towards, but of course we’re trying to accelerate vaccination where we are able to do so provided supplies are available for that to be the case and that’s the work that’s under way just now which is delivering substantial progress.”
READ MORE: Prestwick: sports bar at the centre of new Covid outbreak
He added: “We said we would have this exercise completed in June/July, that is exactly what we will do and we are confident that the programme we have in place is able to do exactly that.
“We’ve said the end of July and I’m very confident that’s exactly what we will achieve.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel