Covid in Scotland: Two million people have received first jab
- Published
Ian Love gets his vaccine at Forth Valley College's Stirling campus on the day the two millionth Scot gets the first jab
More than two million people in Scotland have now received their first dose of the Covid vaccine.
The Scottish government said the milestone meant that 44% of the eligible population has had at least one jab.
"Virtually all" over-65s have now had the first dose, as well as 67% of 60 to 64-year-olds.
The two-millionth jab was given to 60-year-old Ian Love, from Dunipace, at Forth Valley College's Stirling campus.
Across the UK, a total of 25 million people have now received their first dose.
Nicola Sturgeon said around 50,000 vaccinations were carried out in Scotland on Tuesday - the highest in a single day "for quite some time".
The first minister added that 42% of 55 to 59-year-olds and 34% of 50 to 54-year-olds have also received their first jab.
However, the announcement coincided with emerging news that the momentum of the vaccination programme is again to be hit by supply issues.
Health chiefs said on Wednesday that the UK faces a drop in vaccine availability for a four-week period heading into April.
The NHS has written to local health organisations warning of a "significant reduction in weekly supply" of coronavirus vaccines from the week beginning 29 March for a month.
The letter said there had been a "reduction in national inbound vaccines supply".
'Enormous efforts'
The two million milestone being reached in just over three months was down to "the enormous efforts of our vaccination teams", Scotland's health secretary said.
Jeane Freeman added: "I would like to thank everyone who is working tirelessly to make this a success, and also every individual who has taken up their offer of a vaccine.
"Scotland's Covid-19 vaccination programme is now in the final stages of vaccinating the first nine priority groups.
"When you are offered the vaccine, please take up the invitation."
The UK government said it was "heartening to see incredible progress being made right across the country, in the largest vaccination programme in our history".
The Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack, said: "The UK government is supplying vaccines for people in all parts of the United Kingdom, and our fantastic British armed forces are working with the NHS to get needles into arms.
"This is just one way the UK government is supporting every part of the country in our fight against Covid-19."
Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon also announced at her daily briefing that a new £13m genomic sequencing centre will be set up in Scotland to identify different variants of coronavirus.
The first minister said the centre would be be able to sequence up to 1,000 samples per day.
She said: "That's going to be really important in the next phase of the pandemic.
"It will help us identify new variants at as early a stage as possible so that we can try, where those variants are of concern, to make as sure as we can that they don't get a foothold into the community and start to spread more widely."
Ms Sturgeon said the centre would also be used in future for any other pandemics or similar public health crises.
In Wednesday's daily figures, there were a further 625 positive Covid cases recorded in Scotland.
There are 422 people in hospital - down 18 on Tuesday - and 38 people in intensive care, which is down four.
Twelve more deaths were registered in the past 24 hours of people who tested positive in the last 28 days.
