Nicola Sturgeon will make a covid statement today amid claims Scotland's routemap out of lockdown could be delayed by up to 10 weeks.
The First Minister will address Holyrood after Boris Johnson last night confirmed England will not end its social distancing restrictions on June 21 due to a rise in coronavirus cases caused by the more infectious Delta variant.
The SNP leader has not put a date on when lockdown will be lifted entirely - but it had been hoped Scotland would have entered Level 0 by the end of June.
Instead much of the country - including Glasgow and Edinburgh - remains at Level 2.
It comes as national clinical director Jason Leitch highlighted the need to get both vaccinations to offer “decent” protection and suggested eight to 10 weeks of progress thanks to the vaccine had been “lost” because of the variant, first identified in India.
Leitch said yesterday the new strain of covid had “changed the game” in terms of the vaccine rollout because of the lack of protection offered by the first dose alone.
He said a four-week delay for first doses could allow nine million second doses across the UK, but said the government was “trying desperately” to not impact the vaccine rollout for younger people.
The Scottish Government is now aiming to offer second doses eight weeks after the first, he explained, as he urged any eligible Scots waiting for their second dose to consider the "open access" vaccine clinics.
He continued: "We're desperate to get those vaccines in just as quick as we can, and that will allow us to give advice to the First Minister that says 'yes, the game has now changed; the vaccine is changing and we can begin to relax a little bit more'."
Lib Dem health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “The UK Government messed up by allowing the Delta variant to take hold, while the Scottish Government has presided over a vaccine program which is still too slow.
"If it weren’t for these errors, we might be almost out of the woods.
“We need to learn from Wales and make our vaccine rollout faster and more accessible, especially to younger people who move often and may have missed their blue letter.”
