MOST over-80s in Scotland have now received their first dose of the Covid vaccine, but critics say the rollout remains “sluggish” and a “postcode lottery”.

John Swinney told Holyrood 51 per cent of people over 80 had had a jag, as well as 95% of care home residents and 98% of frontline health and social care workers. 

However the UK figure for vaccinating the over-80s is 78.7%.

The deputy First Minister also came under fire for the slow pace at which vaccines were reaching GPs, who are due to administer them soon to the over-70s.

Wales has vaccinated about 52% of its over 80s, while in Northern Ireland had vaccinated about 55% of people over the age of 80 by Sunday.

The Tories accused the Scottish Government of sitting on around half a million doses.

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Updating MSPs on the state of the outbreak, Mr Swinney said that by this morning, 437,900 people in Scotland had received their first dose of the vaccine.

The UK Government says Scotland has so far been allocated 984,000 doses, or 547,000 more.

Although largely stored by distributor Movianto in England, the Scottish Government’s rollout plan says stocks are available for “next day delivery” to Scotland.

Mr Swinney also published new numbers showing the number of vaccinations in the past 24 hours was 22,498, less than the number on four days over the past week.

Accused of failing to speed up the rollout, he insisted the Scottish Government was on target to hit its target of vaccinating the top two priority groups by the end of the first week in February, and the over-70s by mid-February.

He said: “In time - not immediately, but in the fairly near future - vaccination should start to significantly reduce the number of people who die from Covid.

“In the longer term, as more and more people are vaccinated, we should see an impact on hospital admissions and transmission rates.”

“And of course ultimately the vaccination programme - combined perhaps with some continuing restrictions - offers us a way out of this pandemic."

Tory MSP Jamie Greene accused the Government of a "slow and sluggish" response, with supplies "just not getting out to GPs quickly enough".

He said: “The SNP’s Covid vaccine roll-out has been slow and sluggish. People do not understand why the Government has half a million doses of the vaccine sitting there, unused. 

“The SNP’s vaccination plan says that those doses are available for ‘next day delivery’, but we know that the vaccines are not getting out to general practitioners quickly enough.

“Dr Andrew Buist, of the British Medical Association in Scotland, said this morning  that reaching the target of vaccinating all over-70s by the middle of February is a big ask. 

“We have had many reports today from over-70s across the country being told that they will  have to travel miles from their GP to get the vaccine. 

“That is the postcode lottery that we have been warning about for months.  

“We must end the vaccine postcode lottery.”

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Mr Swinney replied: “There are not, in our hands in Scotland, 500,000 doses of the vaccine  that can be used at this present moment.  

“More vaccines have been allocated to Scotland than the number that we have in our hands.  “Those will be drawn down as soon as the distributors are able to verify the supplies and to   distribute them to us in Scotland. That is the orderly path that we are taking.

“We are on course to complete vaccination of all over-80-year-olds by the end of the first  week in February. 

“The progress that has been made reaffirms the pattern of delivery.  

“Letters are now arriving at the households of individuals in the over-70s group, inviting them  to come for their vaccinations. Some of the vaccinations will be given in centres other than local general practices, but that is for a very good reason. 

“Many of those centres will undertake vaccination in significant volumes, which is more  suited to delivery of the Pfizer vaccine because it comes in much large  batches than  the  Oxford-AstraZeneca  vaccine. There is a clear rationale for taking that approach.”

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He went on: “I reassure the Parliament and members of the public that good progress is   being made on delivery of the vaccine to the over-80s. 

“We have already reached more than 95% of care home residents, whom we know are most at risk of morbidity from Covid. 

“We have reached the majority of over-80s and the task will be completed by the end of the first week in February.  

“We will then move on to complete first doses for the next priority group by the middle of February, as we announced.”

Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said the Government's explanations "simply do not add up", as "the programme in England is getting faster while in Scotland it's getting slower".

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said the rollout plans of all 14 regional health boards should be published to bring clarity to the picture across Scotland.

He said: “The SNP’s vaccine rollout is behind schedule and it’s entirely their fault.

“The SNP have hundreds of thousands of doses sitting in storage, ready to be used, but they’re failing to deliver. The pace should be picking up, not standing still. 

“Publishing individual health board plans would help us to spot problems early and fix them.”