Question reference: S5W-35577
- Asked by: Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 26 February 2021
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Current status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 February 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline the approach that it will take to the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine once the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation groups 1 to 9 have been completed.
Answer
We will continue the vaccination programme in line with the independent expert scientific and clinical advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation (JCVI). We are making excellent progress through the first JCVI priority cohorts. Once we have offered vaccination to these groups, we will therefore continue to follow recently published JCVI advice by inviting adults under 50 who have not yet received the vaccine in age cohorts, as follows:
- All those aged 40-49 years
- All those aged 30-39 years
- All those aged 18-29 years
The JCVI’s recommendation continues to be that an age-based approach is the best way to address the risk of severe illness and mortality associated with the virus and this approach helps us to do that as quickly as possible. This approach will be taken by the 4 Nations across the UK and we will continue to vaccinate as quickly as supplies allow.
Our priority is to save lives, and vaccination remains one of the most important tools we have as we work our way out of this pandemic, alongside our Test and Protect system and the restrictions we all must, for now, continue to live with. We would ask everyone who is invited for a vaccine to go, and I am grateful for the patience of those who we are yet to reach as we roll the programme out further.