Over 5000 people vaccinated against the coronavirus in Scotland

More than 5,000 people have received the first of two doses of a vaccine against Covid-19, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.

Vaccinations have taken place in all health board areas across Scotland since Tuesday – apart from Shetland and the Western Isles, where programmes will begin this week.

The First Minister added the death toll from the virus has risen above 4,000 as she updated MSPs in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday.

Speaking at First Minister’s Questions she said: “Over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday a total of 5,330 people in Scotland received the first dose of the vaccine.”

Weekly updates will now be published showing how many Scots have been given the Pfizer/BioNTech injections.

MS Sturgeon told MSPs: “We can all be hopeful the start of vaccinations does mark the beginning of the end of the pandemic for Scotland.

“But the coming months will still be really difficult and all of us should do everything we can to keep ourselves and loved ones safe.

“We see in other parts of the UK just now that as restrictions have eased case numbers have started to rise again and that is a real risk we face here, too.

“The only way to mitigate against it is for all of us to be ultra cautious and careful, and stick rigidly to the rules.”

Find out what Covid-19 restriction level you are in and what this means with our interactive tool

Coronavirus in numbers

Scotland has recorded 50 coronavirus deaths and 933 positive tests in the past 24 hours.

It brings the death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 4,039.

But data released by the National Records of Scotland on Wednesday shows 5,868 people have died with confirmed or suspected coronavirus since the pandemic began.

A total of 103,305 people have now tested positive in Scotland, up from 102,372 the previous day.

There are 984 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, up 12 in 24 hours, with 52 patients in intensive care, up two.

Ms Sturgeon said the latest data shows the R number – the average number of people infected by each person with Covid-19 – had “fallen further below one”.

She said this highlights the restrictions in place are “having the desired effect”.

Tier movement

With 16 local authority areas moving down a level in Scotland’s multi-tier system, including the 11 areas leaving the toughest Level 4 restrictions, Ms Sturgeon stressed the need for caution.

She was criticised by Labour leader, Richard Leonard for keeping Edinburgh in Level 3, who said the people of the city needed more clarification as to why.

Ms Sturgeon said: “The people of Edinburgh deserve a government that will take decisions that try to keep them as safe as possible from an infectious virus.”