More than 1.5 million Scots given first Covid vaccination

More than 1,500,000 Scots have been given their first coronavirus vaccination, the First Minister has said.

Speaking at the Scottish Parliament, Nicola Sturgeon said that 1,515,980 people had now received their first dose of the vaccine, an increase of 27,903 in the last 24 hours.

Almost one third of the adult population in Scotland have now been given their first coronavirus vaccine, which Sturgeon called “an important milestone”.

She said: “The fact that more than one and a half million people have now received the first dose of vaccination is I think an important milestone.

“We’ve now given a first dose to almost exactly one third of the adult population and that includes virtually everyone in the top four clinical priority groups recommended by the JCVI.”

There have been a further 31 deaths from coronavirus in the past 24 hours in Scotland, with the death toll now standing at 7084.

The number of new cases has fallen to 769, a decrease of 27, which brings the total number of positive cases recorded in Scotland to 200,406.

The daily test positivity rate now stands at 3.7%, down from 3.9% the previous day.

There are currently 967 patients with coronavirus being treated in hospital, with 89 of those in intensive care.