'Huge' Covid vaccination uptake and efficient rollout are reason for 'virtual hug' on Valentine's Day, says Highland GP
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HUGE uptake in the Covid vaccination rollout and encouraging signs on infection rate statistics are reason enough for a "virtual hug" on Valentine's Day, a Highland GP believes.
Dr Ross Jaffrey set up the Safe Hands, Saves Lives group at the start of the first lockdown period last year in a bid to spread the message about the importance of good hand hygiene and to encourage the use of hand sanitiser at rural locations.
The GP, who has patients in Muir of Ord and Beauly, has since shared statistical information and offered an overview of the situation from a medical standpoint.
In his latest bulletin, he noted that despite a slight increase in cases, the positive test rate sits below five per cent .
He said: "Amazingly Scotland appears to sit third in the world behind Israel and the UAE –and is leading in Europe, in terms of vaccination rate per head of population in the last week.
"All the home nations are doing really well. Why? Due in part to the efficiency of rollout in Primary Care and the recently opened vaccination centres. Supply remains key and is now potentially the main limiting factor affecting continuation of this fantastic trend. People need to be understanding and patient. The vaccine will come, and I think the figures speak for themselves in terms of how well we are doing.
"Uptake is huge, supply remains limited and will mean some are missing out at the moment. It’s never because we don’t want to give it. It is possible there will be a weekend dip, this is more than made up by the average weekly effort. Slight variations across all regions will occur. Politics should not come into it. This needs support from all sides, and a realisation that we can’t have a 'perfect' system.
"What we do have appears to be world leading. That’s worth a virtual hug on Valentine’s Day!"
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Campaign to increase use of hand sanitiser gathers momentum
