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Nicola Sturgeon has urged Michael Gove, the Cabinet minister, to stop other UK ministers disclosing vaccine dose figures as the dispute over Scotland’s slower overall rate of Covid vaccinations intensified.
The Scottish first minister said she had complained to Gove in a conference call with other UK and devolved government leaders, the so-called four nations, on Saturday, implying her government was being deliberately undermined by the UK government.
Sturgeon is under growing pressure to explain why Scotland’s roll-out of the vaccines has been slower than in the rest of the UK. While older Scottish care home residents have been vaccinated faster in Scotland, overall the Scottish vaccinations rate has been the most sluggish.
In England, Sir Simon Stevens, the NHS chief executive, has said 75% of all 75 to 79-year olds have had their first dose; in Scotland, it is 14% for those living in the community. Alister Jack, the Scotland secretary, speculated on Sunday the Scottish government had access to about 1.15m doses yet Monday’s Scottish data showed nearly 560,000 people have had their first dose.
Simon Johnson
(@simon_telegraph)Quick bit of number crunching – if Scotland had vaccinated the same proportion of 75 to 79 year olds as England it would be an extra 115,900 people https://t.co/aCEC2H2KQS
February 1, 2021
Sturgeon admitted during today’s regular coronavirus briefing she was concerned that Sunday’s total vaccinations figure was very low, at 9,628, and had asked her officials to establish why it had plunged. In Wales, a country with 2m fewer people, the figure was 12,898 and in England, nearly 290,000.
Hugo Gye
(@HugoGye)292,116 additional vaccine doses registered in 🏴 yesterday (289,359 1st doses, 2,757 2nd doses)
9,683 in 🏴 (1st doses only)
12,898 in 🏴
February 1, 2021
Sturgeon claimed the UK was being inconsistent: it had been horrified that Jeane Freeman, the Scottish health minister, had published data on expected deliveries of vaccine doses last month, yet was leaking data on vaccines available to her government.
Despite Sturgeon’s complaint, those data are different: the UK government said figures on future deliveries was commercially sensitive – a fact highlighted by the furious row between the EU and AstraZeneca last week, while data on doses already made available was safe to release.
Willie Rennie, the Scottish Lib Dem leader, said:
[The] first minister is in denial if she thinks the public are going to be taken in by this charade. We are seeing deadlines for vaccination invites whizz past and tens of thousands of doses apparently sitting unused. The public deserves to know why.