The Scottish Conservatives have said mass vaccination centres are necessary to deal with the Covid booster jag backlog of nearly two million Scots waiting for their vaccine.
Now that the JCVI have recommended all over 18 year olds should receive a booster jag three months after their second dose there are approximately 1.8 million Scots eligible to receive a third vaccine who have not yet had it.
On Good Morning Scotland, in response to questions about Scottish Conservative proposals to reopen mass vaccination centres, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said the “biggest constraining factor” in the vaccine rollout is “workforce”.
He added: “You can open up the vaccination centres, but you have to have the staff to be able to staff them.”
However, just a few hours later, Nicola Sturgeon seemed to dismiss those concerns.
In the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross asked if Humza Yousaf’s claim of staff shortages preventing mass vaccination centres from being reopened was correct and how it was being resolved.
Nicola Sturgeon said she was “considering all possible options” but there was not a “shortage of staff”.
Why haven't the SNP reopened mass vaccination centres, when nearly two million Scots are currently waiting for a booster jag?👇 pic.twitter.com/nIFypT0VuL
— Scottish Conservatives (@ScotTories) November 30, 2021
Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross said:
“There is no doubt that there could be more urgency in delivering the booster jag programme.
“For several weeks now we have been calling for the reopening of mass vaccination centres to speed up the rollout.
“There is a real lack of urgency from the Scottish Government on this issue, even though we all saw that these centres were incredibly effective in the rollout of the initial doses of the Covid vaccine.
“Humza Yousaf suggested that mass vaccination centres were not an option because of staff shortages, although it seems that Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t fully agree.
“When two million Scots are waiting for a Covid jag, it’s difficult to understand why the government is not doing everything possible to boost the rollout by backing our call for mass vaccination centres to be reopened.
“There is a glaring lack of urgency from the government about what they’re doing to accelerate the vaccine scheme and tackle the booster jag backlog.”
