Extra vaccine dose for thousands of people in East Dunbartonshire after new target announced

A member of staff prepares a Covid-19 Pfizer jab at a pop-up vaccination centre at Westfield Stratford City shopping centre in east London, where TikTok are encouraging young Londoners to get jabbed. Picture date: Saturday October 2, 2021.

Thousands of people received an extra dose of the coronavirus vaccine in East Dunbartonshire after a new booster jab target was announced by the First Minister, figures reveal.

On Sunday (December 12), Nicola Sturgeon revealed that every eligible adult in Scotland is to be offered a top-up injection by the end of December.

Her comments came shortly after an address to the UK from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in which he warned there is “a tidal wave of Omicron coming”.

Data from the UK coronavirus dashboard shows at least 2,012 people in East Dunbartonshire received a booster or third vaccine dose on December 13 and 14 – the latest available data.

That was up from 1,913 over the same two days last week.

It means 53,654 people in East Dunbartonshire had received a booster or third dose by December 14 – at least 57% of people aged 12 and over, based on the latest ONS population estimates.

Around 99,900 people across Scotland received an extra dose over Monday and Tuesday, the figures show.

Speaking at a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday night, Boris Johnson said it is “absolutely vital” that everyone gets a booster jab to tackle the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

He warned that the wave of Omicron "continues to roll in" across the UK, and warned in some areas the doubling rate was now under two days.

England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty added that "records will be broken a lot" over the coming weeks.

“What we’ve got is two epidemics on top of one another – an existing Delta epidemic, roughly flat, and a very rapidly-growing Omicron epidemic on top of it,” he said.

Scotland became the first UK nation to give a booster or third dose of Covid-19 vaccine to more than half of its entire adult population on Tuesday.

A total of 2.2 million extra doses had been given to over-18s across the nation as of December 14 – 51% of the age group, according to Public Health Scotland.

The NHS Inform booking system opened up to all adults the following day, as the health service ramped up its vaccination programme.

Booster jabs are now available for eligible people who had their second dose at least three months ago, while third primary doses are already offered to people with severely weakened immune systems.