People could be offered a fourth dose of the Covid vaccine in an attempt to control the virus, an expert has suggested.
As the Daily Record reports, Professor Adam Finn, a professor of paediatrics at University of Bristol and a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), has said that ministers may be recommended to offer a second booster jab to the elderly and more vulnerable in the New Year.
This comes after new studies have suggested that the Omicron variant may be less severe than earlier strains of Covid like Delta that saw an increase in hospital admissions.
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However, Professor Neil Ferguson, from the Imperial College London team behind one of the studies, warned Omicron's severity may be offset by the "reduced efficacy" of vaccines to stop it being transmitted.
Speaking on LBC Radio, Prof Finn said: "I think there will be people probably who will receive a fourth jab - whether that will be everyone, I think, is still very much in doubt.
"We do need to see how things go through this wave and beyond.
"I think there may well be people who received their boosters early who are in the older more vulnerable age groups who may need a further jab - that has not been decided yet.
"It is still under review and discussion, and we will be providing recommendations on that at some point in the new year."
Prof Finn also announced that a decision as to whether all children aged five to 11 might get the jab "is still under very active consideration".
He said: "There are a number of moving parts to that decision.
"We see very, very few severe cases in this young age group, happily, so there is not much serious disease to be prevented."
He added: "The factor that persuaded the Government to introduce vaccination for older children was the disruption of their education and the ability of vaccines to reduce ... transmission of infection among children as well as between children and adults.
"With the Omicron variant, in particular, the ability of the vaccines to do that will be reduced.
"Many of these children will now already have had the infection. We just need to weigh up all of those things and make sure that a decision to move forward would benefit those children and actually do some good."
As of December 22, 4,375,588 people in Scotland have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccination, 4,000,171 have received their second dose, and 2,708,761 have received a third dose or booster.
