Expert 'very optimistic' about summer as 10% of Fifers get vaccination

A leading Scottish public health expert says he is "very optimistic" about the summer - as the number of people in Fife getting the coronavirus vaccine reaches 37,000.

About 10% of the Kingdom's population have now had their first dose of the jag.

Although that figure is lower than most other Scottish health boards, the Scottish Government insists it is on course to meet targets it has set nationally for the rollout.

Meanwhile plans are being finalised to roll out more asymptomatic testing in communities in Fife, in an attempt to continue to reduce the spread of the virus.

Professor Linda Bauld, from Edinburgh University, says these factors combined mean we can look forward to brighter times ahead - as long as things continue to go to plan.

She told Kingdom FM: "I'm very optimistic for the summer, unless this virus behaves in a way we don't expect.

"I think we will have many, many more things open - we will be able to go and have a meal in a restaurant, we hopefully will be able to go and visit friends and family, and we may be able to move around the country.

"What we're not going to be able to do, unless we comply with very strong quarantine requirements, is go abroad. I think that's really important for people to prepare themselves for and recognise - while there will be essential reasons to travel abroad, and that will continue, I think for holidays we're really going to be looking at doing that within this country this summer."

Earlier this week the first minister confirmed plans for some school pupils to start returning on a phased basis from February 22, and the hope that some lockdown restrictions will be eased from the start of March.

Prof Bauld believes the country will, at that point, go back into the tiered system that was in place before Christmas.

She said: "If things go well in schools after February 22, then more age groups will return to school - that's going to continue to be the first priority for the Scottish Government.

"Beyond that I would expect to see some non-essential retail opening, potentially some easing on travel restrictions in the future, and then as we head further into the year - if we can get these numbers down, and the vaccine rollout goes well, which it is at the moment - then hospitality will be able to reopen."

Prof Bauld says the UK as a whole is doing "extremely well internationally" on the vaccine rollout - but says Scotland needs to catch up with the likes of Wales and Northern Ireland, where higher proportions of the population have had their first doses.

Some parts of Scotland are also ahead of Fife in getting the jag to more of their population - but Prof Bauld says this is normal.

She said: "The areas of Scotland that have a higher proportion of care home residents, and a higher proportion of people over the age of 80 in particular, you are going to see in those areas a higher proportion of the population overall vaccinated.

"That's really important context to keep in mind. It's not a direct competition between different local authorities or health boards, because of those differences.

"There may also be some delivery issues that we need to look at - so the mass vaccination sites that have been set up have a high through-put capacity and they're only in certain areas, so that's going to affect what happens in those localities.

"We really just need to keep an eye on these variations, but recognise that they're not all a feature of how local vaccine services are operating in that area."

Scott Garden, NHS Fife's director of pharmacy and medicine, says "considerable progress" has been made on vaccinations in Fife so far - and the Kingdom remains on course to meet the timelines set out by Holyrood.

He said: "The national Covid-19 vaccination programme is the most complex and challenging immunisation project undertaken in modern times.

"Locally, almost 37,000 local people have already been vaccinated against Covid-19 and a significant milestone was reached this week with the opening of the first of our community vaccination clinics.

"These clinics will enable us to considerably expand our vaccinating capacity and accelerate the pace of the vaccination programme.

"In recent days the Scottish Government has directed all boards to expedite vaccination of those aged 65-79, along with those with underlying health conditions. Local plans are currently being finalised to address this and will be confirmed as soon as possible."