Covid: ‘Drastic’ fall in vaccine appointment no-shows in Glasgow, says minister

Scottish government ‘confident’ Glasgow’s 6,000-capacity fan zone will be allowed to open in time for Euro 2020

There has been a “drastic” decrease in the number of people failing to turn up for their coronavirus vaccine appointments in Glasgow, a Scottish government minister has said.

Concerns were raised in the city last weekend when around half of all vaccination appointments at the city’s mass vaccination centre in the SSE Hydro arena were missed.

Health secretary Humza Yousaf said he was encouraged by the fact the numbers of “did not attends” had fallen over the last few days, although he did not share any figures.

However, the SNP minister admitted there was still “a lot” of people failing to show up for appointments at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow – which remains subject to Scotland’s strictest curbs due to a spike in Covid cases.

“On Thursday and Friday certainly the data that came through to me that was verified certainly show that the numbers of ‘did not attends’ have drastically fallen, which is positive,” he told BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Monday.

Mr Yousaf added: “There’s still a lot of people not attending, and so we’re putting a lot of effort into that younger cohort.”

He said the 18 to 29-year-olds would begin to be vaccinated in the greater Glasgow area this week, with several new drop-in vaccine centres set up in parts of the city affected by the recent spike.

Glasgow is the only area in Scotland under level 3 of the Scottish government’s five-tier coronavirus restrictions, meaning residents cannot meet others indoors at home, travel out of the city or drink alcohol indoors in pubs and restaurants.

First minister Nicola Sturgeon has said a decision would be made by Wednesday, at the latest, on whether the city can join the rest of the country in level 2 on Saturday 5 June.

Nicola Sturgeon inspecting mass vaccination centre at SSE Hydro (PA)

Deputy first minister John Swinney said on Sunday he was “confident” a 6,000-capacity fan zone will open in Glasgow in time for the Euro 2020 kick off on 11 June.

Approval for the fan zone is “subject to the state of the pandemic nearer the time,” Mr Swinney pointed out, but said he believes it will go ahead.

He claimed on BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show that measures taken to suppress the outbreak, including drop-in vaccine centres and door-to-door testing – as well as the higher restriction level in Glasgow – have been “successful”.

However, the health secretary sounded a downbeat note when discussing the next step of lockdown lifting across the rest of Scotland.

Mr Yousaf said not all areas may be allowed to move from level 2 down into level 1 when restrictions are due to change on 7 June.

“I must be quite frank – there’s other parts of the country that clearly, from the data, give us cause for concern,” he said on Monday.

The first minister is due to update the Scottish parliament on the planned move to level 1 on Tuesday.

The Holyrood government’s latest coronavirus figures – published on Sunday – show Scotland recorded 526 new coronavirus cases but no further deaths. The daily test positivity rate is 3.2 per cent, up on 2.5 per cent the previous day.