RATES OF Army boosts vaccinations
First Minister says light at end of the tunnel is more visible as new cases, hospital admissions and the R number are all falling
NICOLA Sturgeon has said falling numbers of coronavirus cases showed “the light at the end of the tunnel is more visible”.
Giving her daily briefing yesterday, the First Minister said there had been 1149 new cases in the last 24 hours, which was 4.9 per cent of tests carried out – the first time it had dipped below five per cent in more than a month.
There were also 53 fewer people in hospital, with a total of 1812 coronavirus patients on wards and a small drop in the numbers in intensive care with 127 patients, four fewer than the day before. However, there were another 53 deaths.
But the R number – the rate at which the virus is reproducing – has also fallen below one.
While Sturgeon cautioned against reading too much into a single day’s figures, she said: “Any day with test positivity below five per cent is welcome.
“We shouldn’t overstate it but nevertheless I think, particularly given how grim things have been recently, we should allow ourselves to reflect just a little bit on the rays of sunshine when they appear.
“That is undoubtedly a small ray of sunshine.”
She said patient numbers indicated hospital figures are beginning to stabilise and decline gradually.
But she warned while that was good news, “staff on the frontline of out health service continue to be under severe pressure”.
She added that while too many people were still dying: “Let’s keep focusing on the light at the end of the tunnel.
“We are not quite at the end of the tunnel, there are still tough times ahead but there is no doubt that the light is more visible now than it has been at any point in recent weeks.”
Sturgeon admitted she was being extremely cautious after the new variant “came like a punch on the stomach”.
And she admitted: “If we look back to last year, we were in a difficult phase in December. We knew we were going into a second wave winter period.
“We didn’t think we were going to have it as tough as we have had it and that kind of came out of the blue.
“Everybody knows viruses mutate and you get new variants but at that point a new variant so much more infectious knocked us for six.
“None of us can be sure something like that won’t happen again and that’s why we need to be really cautious we are doing everything we can to minimise the risk of that when we start to see some of these more hopeful signs take firmer root.”
However, the First Minister said she hoped by early March she could look towards a “gradual easing of restrictions” but that she could not say whether that would be national or regional easing. She added: “We do hope to get back to the level system where we don’t have a one size fits all but whether that will be by March, I just don’t know.
“I don’t want to speculate too far into the future and give people hope that might not be realised.
“Things are going in the right direction and that is what we have to take heart from and keep it going in the right direction. But as we do start to ease lowdown in the early stages, all the limited room for manoeuvre we have will go on children and getting children back to normal first.
“It may be for a bit longer the adults will have to make sacrifices. It is all about putting children first.”
A more immediate concern for the Government is the possible effect the predicted snow will have on the vaccination programme.
In the last 24 hours, 45,085 people have received the Covid vaccine – the largest daily number since the programme was rolled out– bringing the total number vaccinated in Scotland to 694,347.
But Sturgeon admitted there had been discussions about the possible effects on the programme with heavy snowfall forecast in many parts of the country.
The Met Office has already issued amber warnings across many parts
of Scotland with falls of up to 12 inches in some places and almost two feet in Deeside, Donside and Easter Ross.
Sturgeon said: “I am always concerned when there is severe weather forecast but obviously we want people to be able to get to vaccination centres and forecasts and reports of heavy snow clearly concern me.
“They make my heart sink a little bit but our resilience preparation and local authorities resilience partnerships are in the lead here.
“There’s lots of work gone in to make sure gritting and snow clearing, where necessary, is done so we keep the vaccination programme running as smoothly as possible even when there is bad weather. But, of course, logic and common sense tells you that severe weather does have an impact on things.
“We just have to try to minimise that as much as possible.”
Chief nursing officer Fiona McQueen said the most important thing was to “stay safe” and not venture out if it was too slippy and people were afraid of falling.
She urged communities to “rally round and help move the snow” off pavements but told people with vaccination appointments they “should not be fretting” because they would get another appointment if they couldn’t make it to the vaccination centre.
THE Army has begun giving people Covid-19 jabs at a mass vaccination centre at the Royal Highland Centre. A team of vaccinators from the Armed Forces were invited to staff the centre outside Edinburgh after NHS Lothian put the finishing touches in place and launched it on Wednesday. Over the last two days, about 1800 people have been given their first dose of protection against the virus. The Armed Forces will provide about 20 vaccinators for up to two weeks, while more training and induction takes place, before the NHS teams switch back. Pat Wynne, director of nursing for primary and community care at NHS Lothian, said: “It has taken a lot of work but we are now seeing delivery of this lifesaving vaccine to thousands of people.” The vaccination centre is in the Members’ Pavilion and has nine stations.