First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the first batch of Moderna vaccines have arrived in Scotland this week.
The UK has bought 17 million doses of the third coronavirus vaccine – enough for 8.5 million people - and it will be rolled out alongside the Pfizer and AstraZeneca jags.
Scotland is due to receive 1 million doses of the vaccine from the UK cohort, with the first batch having had arrived. The Moderna vaccines have already been factored into planning for the vaccination programme for Scotland.
Ms Sturgeon added these will be delivered over the coming months.
Speaking at the coronavirus briefing yesterday, Ms Sturgeon said: "I can confirm though that the first batch of the Moderna vaccine arrived in Scotland safely yesterday. A total of 17 million doses of this vaccine have been ordered for the UK – and of that total, Scotland will receive well over a million doses.
She added: "It is important to stress though that Moderna vaccines will arrive over a period of months, not all at once, and the doses we expect to receive are already factored into our forward projections - so the arrival of this first batch doesn’t mean that we able to accelerate the vaccination programme. The speed of vaccination is already taking account of the expected Moderna supplies.
"Nevertheless, the fact that we now have three vaccines in use is clearly very welcome, and it does give us additional security of supply, which is important."
Phase three results suggest Moderna's efficacy against Covid-19 was 94.1%, and efficacy against severe Covid-19 was 100%.
