A leading Covid scientist has warned that Scotland and the UK’s vaccine programme on their own will not be enough to restart foreign holidays.
The latest data released by the Scottish Government reveals that almost 2.4m Scots have now received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccination.
More than 30 million people across the UK are said to have been given their first jab as of Sunday.
And while the rollout in the UK and in Scotland has been praised, similar rollouts across the globe have been slower due to a number of resources issues.
Dr Mike Tildesley, who is a member of a modelling subgroup of SAGE, said that the UK must consider sending supplies abroad if it seeks for a return to international travel, reports the Mirror.
He told BBC News on Sunday that while the vaccine programme could allow the UK to return to a "level of freedom", other countries will take a long time to roll out jabs.
He added: "Domestically it's pretty easy for us to get back to a level of freedom given how well our vaccination campaign is going.
"But this is a global problem, it could be a long time before some countries get the vaccines they need to be able to fully unlock and start international travel again.
"So we do need to look more widely, if we want to have a free UK as we did 18 months ago, but also allow international travel, we do need to think about sending vaccines to those countries where they are not able to acquire the levels of vaccines we have been able to.”
Dr Tildesley also said that a third wave of infections from Europe could lead to more Covid cases.
But the successful vaccination programme could mean this will not lead to more people going into hospital or dying.
He added: "This time we have got a very successful vaccination campaign, we have high levels of protection among the vulnerable, we may see cases rise a little bit."
Overall, the SAGE experts said the country was in a "good position" to ease restrictions.
He added: "I am relatively confident that if things keep going as well as they have been going we should be on target to hopefully relax all of those measures by June.”
Hairdressers are among the businesses that will be allowed to reopen in Scotland amid lockdown easing taking place from next week.
The Scottish Government is hoping that the country can move to the lowest form of coronavirus restrictions at the end of June.
