Sturgeon urges people to get Covid vaccine as she receives booster

The First Minister attended the vaccine centre in Easterhouse on Saturday.

Nicola Sturgeon has urged people to get their Covid vaccination as soon as they can after she received her booster jag.

The First Minister was given her Covid booster, as well as a flu shot, at the Glasgow Club Easterhouse vaccine centre on Saturday.

It comes amidst concern over the Omicron variant across the UK, with scientists working to learn more about the latest strain.

Speaking after receiving her jag, the First Minister outlined the importance of getting vaccinated to increase protection against coronavirus.

She said: “It is critically important for everybody who is eligible to come forward and get a booster as soon as possible.

“We know that booster jags significantly increase the amount of protection that you get, so it’s not marginal, it is really significant.

“And that would always have been important as we head into winter, but with the new Omicron variant, it’s even more important.

“There’s lots of talk about whether vaccines will be less effective against Omicron, we don’t know that yet, but it’s really important to stress that even if that was the case, less effective does not mean ineffective.

“You’re still going to have so much more protection if you have a vaccination, including your booster vaccination, than you will have without that.

“So please, if you haven’t already had your vaccine, whether that’s your first dose, second, third dose, or your booster and you’re eligible, please get it.”

Official figures published on Saturday indicate there were 14 coronavirus-related deaths and 1257 new cases recorded in Scotland over the last 24 hours.

One case of the new Omicron variant has been confirmed in that time, in NHS Grampian, taking the total people infected with the variant to 30.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has the most of the new variant cases at 11, followed by NHS Lanarkshire with nine, five in NHS Forth Valley, three in NHS Highland and two in NHS Grampian.

The Scottish Government said Public Health Scotland is “aware of a processing issue with UK Government lab tests contributing to lower than expected cases and tests” in the daily figures and investigations are ongoing to resolve the problem.

There were 605 people in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19 as of Friday night and, of these, 50 were in intensive care.

So far, 4,351,214 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, 3,956,719 have had a second, and 1,823,515 have been given a third dose or booster.

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