Waiting times for second doses of Covid-19 vaccines are being slashed from 12 weeks to eight in Lanarkshire.
The move comes to “help get ahead of any significant rise in cases” due to the variant first identified in India, NHS Lanarkshire said.
Capacity at vaccine clinics has been ramped up to hit an target of 60,000 doses a week.
Currently, more than three-quarters of all adults in the UK have had their first Covid-19 jab. Almost half have had their second.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon to push for extended furlough scheme at Covid summit
NHS Lanarkshire Covid vaccination lead, Dr Mark Russell, said people due their second dose at the end of June or beginning of July will see their appointments brought forward to mid-June.
He said: “To help get ahead of any significant rise in cases of the new Covid-19 variant, we are accelerating the rollout of our vaccination programme.
“From Monday, the number of people attending our vaccination centres will significantly increase.
“At the peak, we will be administering around 60,000 doses a week – this will be a combination of first doses for the younger age groups and second doses.
“To help continue on our road back to normality we need to make sure as many people as possible are vaccinated.
“It is also important to attend for both doses, for longer-lasting protection.”
He asked people to only turn up with an appointment, cancel if they could not make it, come close to their appointment time to avoid queues, and to come on their own.
Dr Russell added: “We need to balance how we deal with the new variant of Covid-19 while continuing with the recovery of other NHS services.
READ MORE: Glasgow study finds patients given unnecessary drugs
“Attending for your vaccination reduces your risk of serious illness from Covid-19 and therefore the impact on the NHS.
“We all need to play our part in getting back to the things we’ve missed.”
The population across North and South Lanarkshire is estimated at roughly 660,000
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel