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Scottish Health secretary Humza Yousaf has penned an urgent letter to his counterpart Matt Hancock and asked what can be done to increase the number of doses north of the border. Ahead of a four-nation call, Mr Yousaf admitted supply of the Pfizer vaccine will be “particularly tight” over the next few weeks and said more doses were needed to “maintain or increase” the rollout.
The SNP minister raised the alarm in the wake of the decision by health chiefs to only give the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab to people over the age of 40.
Mr Yousaf said the call by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has put “increased pressure” on the availability of other vaccines and “squeezed” the supply of Pfizer.
The setback could throw into doubt a goal to offer a first dose to all adults aged 18 and over in Scotland by the end of July.
Mr Yousaf wrote: “In Scotland, similar to our four nations counterparts, we are working hard towards the end of July target for offering first does to all those aged 18 and over.
“This has become even more important as we implement the adjustments to dose schedule set out by JCVI and deploying additional accessible routes to reach communities given the increase in prevalence of the Delta variant.
“I am very clear that this is a race and we must therefore do absolutely everything in our power to accelerate our efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible.
“I appreciate we are all doing what we can in this regard, but I am conscious that the recent changes by JCVI on the role of AstraZeneca, have placed increased pressure on our supply of Pfizer in particular.
“The latest forecast on supply would indicate that Pfizer will be particularly tight over the next few weeks and as a consequence the programme won’t be able to accelerate as much as I would wish.”
More to follow
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