New mass vaccination centres mark next phase of Scotland’s coronavirus plan

Scotland has entered the second phase of its plan to give the population a vaccine to combat coronavirus with two new mass vaccination centres opening on Monday.

The facilities at Aberdeen’s P&J Live venue and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) will be able to inoculate an extra 27,000 people per week.

NHS staff spent last week vaccinating each other as part of their inductions at the centres.

The EICC will have capacity to vaccinate more than 21,000 people a week at 45 stations, while the Aberdeen site will start with 20 booths to accommodate around 6,000 people weekly.

According to the Scottish Government, the NHS Louisa Jordan in Glasgow has been vaccinating between 1,000 and 5,000 per day since early December and has the capacity to go to 10,000 per day.

The scale of the operation means this week letters will start going out across Lothian, Grampian and Greater Glasgow and Clyde to those aged between 65 and 69 – the next group on the priority list.

It comes as the vaccines are now also being offered to people over 70 across the country from Monday.

The aim is to vaccinate everyone aged between 70 and 79 – and the clinically extremely vulnerable, including over-16s on the shielding list – by mid-February.

Last month there was confusion after Health Secretary Jeane Freeman urged people in this age group to look out for the “very distinctive” blue envelopes for information on when they would receive their first dose of the Covid-19 jab

However the blue envelopes were not ready in time and white, windowed envelopes featuring a distinctive black NHS logo was sent out to some people as a temporary measure instead.