Question reference: S6W-02811
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 9 September 2021
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Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 October 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact that COVID-19 vaccine status checks and vaccine passports will have on (a) vaccine uptake and (b) COVID-19 case numbers.
Answer
Evidence from overseas suggests there may be an uptake in vaccination after an announcement to introduce certification.
In Scotland, in the two weeks since the announcement on 1 September, there has been a 10% increase in uptake for 18-29s first doses in comparison to the two week’s prior to the announcement (18 – 31 August).
In addition to the individual level of protection against severe disease or hospitalisation afforded by vaccination, a further benefit of the vaccination programme is to assist in developing widespread community immunity, reducing the force of transmission and viral reproduction rate, in order to help control the prevalence of COVID-19.
Studies have demonstrated that being vaccinated against COVID-19 significantly reduces your risk of being infected. Research by Public Health England (PHE), which monitors vaccine effectiveness within the UK, shows that those who become infected 3 weeks after receiving one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech (Cominarty) or AstraZeneca (Vaxzevria) vaccine were between 38% and 49% less likely to pass COVID-19 on to their household contacts than those who were unvaccinated.
Further research into the COVID-19 vaccines’ impacts on transmission is underway. Weekly COVID-19 vaccine surveillance reports monitoring vaccine effectiveness, including evidence on effectiveness against transmission, are published here: COVID-19 vaccine surveillance reports - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .