First Minister says new Covid variant can not be overcome through vaccination alone
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has revealed that the new strain of Covid is believed to be responsible for half the number of new cases that triggered a fresh lockdown that took effect at midnight.
In total, she revealed, there are now 2529 new cases in the last 24 hours with the vast majority located in four Central Belt health boards.
They are NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (695), NHS Lanarkshire (388), NHS Lothian (322), NHS Tayside (210).
Ms Sturgeon argued that these figures show it is 'no longer enough' to simply rely on the vaccines with just 100,000 people receiving a jab so far and the lockdown is a necessary evil to contain the spread of the virus.
She said: “Analysis shows that the new variant is now responsible for around 50 per cent of new cases in Scotland and that that is a proportion that is rising.
“Just to re-iterate, the current situation we face in regards to the pandemic is more serious than at any time since the spring and that is because the new transmissible variant of Covid is becoming increasingly more common.
“As a result of that cases are rising much more steeply and rapidly than they had been in the latter part of last year as a result of that more people are likely to become ill and the health service is likely to come under more severe pressure.
“That, of course, is the negative and the worrying position but I say that because we must all take that seriously right now but there is a positive difference between now and last spring and that is vaccines have been approved for use in the UK.
“More than 100,000 people have now been vaccinated and as I set out in parliament yesterday, though these timetables remain tentative, we expect by May that 2.5 million people will have received at least the first dose of the vaccination.
“And this will include everyone on what is called the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation priority list – everyone over 50 and under 50 with underlying health conditions.”
