Record 64,000 boosters delivered in Scotland on Saturday

Queues for booster jabs at the West College of Scotland in Clydebank on Friday

Vaccinators have delivered record boosters in Scotland, according to Public Health Scotland figures.

A total of 64,081 received the jab on Saturday which means 2,501,033 have now received their third dose.

It is the second time the Scottish government's daily target of 61,000 has been hit - which was reduced from 70,000 earlier this week.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said it would be enough to reach 80% of those eligible for the jab before January.

A speedy booster programme is considered vital in tackling the threat of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, which is much more infectious than other strains.

Earlier this week, the Scottish government also confirmed that its request for military personnel to help the vaccination programme had now been approved.

An additional 100 military vaccinators will join 100 existing staff and begin delivering vaccinations from next week.

However, Scottish government advisers have recently suggested tougher Covid restrictions will nevertheless be needed as boosters will not prevent the virus spreading.

National clinical director Prof Jason Leitch told BBC Scotland the population was "not vaccinated enough" and that it was "better to act early than later, better to act harder than softer".

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And Jillian Evans, head of health intelligence at NHS Grampian, said: "We can't boost ourselves out in time. We need more restrictions now.

"There are lots of things we can do individually which will make a huge difference but making things more official - and by that I'm talking about curtailing access to certain things, closing certain things - does bring the numbers down and buys us more time for people to be boosted."

In leaked minutes seen by the BBC, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) suggested that if no further restrictions were introduced, hospital admissions could peak at between 3,000 and 10,000 a day - and deaths between 600 and 6,000.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid told the Andrew Marr Show he would not rule out new coronavirus measures before Christmas - saying there are "no guarantees" in the pandemic.

But Mr Javid said the government was challenging scientific data and considering wider factors before bringing in more measures, adding: "I don't think it would be appropriate for government to take it [the Sage advice] verbatim."

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