Health chiefs are on target to have Renfrewshire’s most vulnerable vaccinated against Covid-19 by this weekend.
Figures, released by Public Health Scotland, show that nearly all over 80s have been jabbed across the region, with the final handful on schedule to be completed.
They add to the 1,000 care home residents given the first dose of either the Pfizer or Oxford AstraZenica vaccine in December and January.
As of February 7, 22,868 Renfrewshire residents had been vaccinated, but several thousand more have had their injection in recent days at the mass clinics set up at Paisley’s Lagoon, Johnstone Town Hall and Renfrew Leisure Centre.
The Express understands this has brought the local authority area in line with national figures which show that one fifth of the adult population has received the jab.
That includes 87 per cent of those aged 75 to 79 who have been vaccinated to date.
They, together with the clinically most vulnerable - a group of around 9,000 people - are due to be completed by Monday.
Speaking at her daily briefing yesterday, the First Minister said: “It means that we have now vaccinated more than 23 per cent of the adult population and, even more importantly, many of them, most of them, are in the groups that we know are most vulnerable to becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid.
“So it’s that that gives us real hope that, even if we don’t see the vaccine having an immediate significant impact on transmission of the virus, we will start to see it reduce serious illness and deaths.”
She added: “I am immensely grateful and I will be eternally grateful to everyone who is helping to deliver this programme in the most difficult of circumstances and, of course, to everybody who is turning up in such huge numbers to receive the first dose.”
Meanwhile, the R number reflecting the rate of infection in Scotland remains under one.
And, in Renfrewshire, the number of new cases continues to fall, with 276 new cases recorded in the area in the first week of February.
That is a fall from 305 over the previous seven-day period.
In Renfrewshire, there is now 163 new cases per 100,000 of the population.
Ms Sturgeon warned that the rate of vaccination may slow in the last two weeks of the month as a lower level of supply is anticipated.
But she said the government’s target of vaccinating all over 50s and the clinically vulnerable by early May will not be affected by this.
She added: “For now, I think we can all take some satisfaction from knowing that we have a vaccination programme.
“Our biggest tool right now in the ultimate fight against this virus is going really well, and people across the country are coming forward in large numbers to take it up. So, again, thank you to everybody involved in that.”
Paisley MSP George Adam admitted hearing that Scotland had hit the one million mark was, for him, a highlight in the fight against the virus.
He said: “With one in five having now received their first dose, along with all those who are vulnerable in our community, we must continue to follow the guidance to the letter so as to let the vaccine do its job and begin to protect us from the worst of coronavirus.
“This truly is a milestone in our effort to fight this disease – but we cannot get complacent now and risk our progress being undone.”
