Covid booster vaccine: Let's make sure Scotland hits its New Year target – Steve Cardownie

I decided to take an easy option when cooking Christmas dinner last week and purchased a sizeable bit of turkey with its own baking tray and balls of stuffing.

The Covid booster vaccine programme has a target to inoculate 80 per cent of the population by the end of the year (Picture: Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

One hour and 40 minutes in the oven and Bob’s your uncle. Much to the amazement of my wife and son (both of whom had predicted a culinary disaster) the texture was spot- on and it made for an adequate centrepiece for our dinner.

So on to this Friday and Hogmanay. I will stay up for the bells of course, not so much to see the New Year in but to make sure that the old year leaves.

So, a quiet night beckons, once more at home with the family, followed by a visit to the pub on New Year’s Day to take in the Arsenal vs Manchester City game followed by Crystal Palace vs West Ham United.

On a more serious note, it is pleasing to see that the Scottish government believes that it will achieve its target of administering the booster jab to 80 per cent of the adult population by the New Year which demonstrates just how seriously people are treating the threat of Omicron transmission.

The national clinical director, Professor Jason Leitch, said that “72 per cent of adults in Scotland had been given the booster by Christmas” and that “we’ve got appointments to get to 80 per cent”. He went on to say that “what we need now is that final push to get people to come to fill those appointments”.

So, the message still is, get vaccinated and get “boosted by the bells!”

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