How is Scotland's booster rollout progressing?
- Published
A mass vaccination centre has opened at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre
Earlier this month, the first minister announced the NHS in Scotland would ramp up its booster programme in the face of the emerging Omicron variant.
The Scottish government set an ambitious target of offering at least a further one million boosters by the end of the year.
It's now around the halfway point - so how is the rollout going and is it likely the target will be met?
What is the target?
On 13 December, Nicola Sturgeon announced that all over-18s in Scotland would be offered the Covid-19 booster by the end of the year.
She confirmed "urgent work" was under way to step up the pace of the rollout - which has now included the opening of mass vaccination centres in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
However, the target was revised down a few days later, meaning 61,000 people would have to receive the jab each day instead of 70,000.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said it would be enough to reach 80% of those eligible for the jab before January.
Is the programme speeding up?
In short, it certainly is.
When the initial target was set on 13 December, 45,827 people received a booster jab. It has increased almost daily since then, peaking at 77,681 delivered on Tuesday.
That record came on the day that mass vaccination centres at Hampden Park in Glasgow and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) opened.
Last week, the Scottish government said arrangements were being made for ministers, including the first minister, to help in vaccine centres.
On Wednesday, Nicola Sturgeon visited the EICC to help as a volunteer - she said staff were doing "heroic work".
She helped with queue management and directing members of the public to vaccination booths and staffed the recovery observation area where people rest for five minutes after receiving their jab.
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And on Thursday the Scottish government confirmed an additional 90 military personnel would be deployed to three health boards to help manage pressures as a result of Omicron.
NHS Ayrshire & Arran will take 20 personnel for for six weeks, NHS Grampian will take 38 for four weeks and NHS Lanarkshire will take 32 for four weeks.
They will join 221 members of the armed forces who have been supporting the vaccine programme across Scotland, while 96 are driving ambulances for the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Will it be enough to hit the target?
We know from Public Health Scotland figures, external that there will be 3,837,113 people eligible for a booster on 31 December - that is the number of over-18s in Scotland who will be at least three months from their second dose on that date.
Reaching 80% of that number by the end of the year, as the Scottish government has pledged, external, means boosting just over three million people.
Once you take away the number of over-18s already boosted - 2,701,988 on 21 December - there are about 368,000 people left to jab between now and the end of the year.
With eight days left, not including Christmas Day and Boxing Day, that would mean vaccinating about 46,000 people a day on average.
About 65,000 booster shots a day on average are being delivered at the moment, so the target should be met comfortably if that rate is maintained.
But it does mean there will still be about 600,000 people overdue their booster as we head into January.
And even if vaccinators keep rising to the booster challenge, there are still significant numbers of people who are yet to start the vaccination course, especially in the 18-29 age group.
On Wednesday, 79.3% of the 18-29 age group had received a first dose - which meant more than 20%, or 169,000 individuals, were totally unvaccinated.
The age group has been overtaken by 16 to 17-year-olds who now have 79.9% vaccinated with a first dose even though they have been eligible for a much shorter time.
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