Coronavirus pandemic updates
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Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she hoped the UK’s independent advisers on Covid-19 vaccinations will this week approve jabs for teenagers over the age of 16.
Sturgeon said she expected updated advice on vaccinations for all teenagers from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation “literally in the next day or so”, adding that she hoped they could be offered to all 16 and 17-year-olds “as a priority” as a new academic year draws near.
Last month the JCVI, whose advice applies to all four of the UK nations, approved vaccination in a limited group of children aged 12 to 17.
The committee gave the green light for children and young people with “specific underlying health conditions that put them at risk of serious Covid-19” to be jabbed, as well as those in that age group who lived in the same household as people who were immunosuppressed.
The debate over vaccinating under-18s gained pace before the summer, when a surge in coronavirus cases caused widespread school disruption across the UK.
Sturgeon told a virtual hearing of the Scottish parliament on Tuesday that she was “hoping, possibly veering towards expecting, updated advice from the JCVI literally in the next day or so”.
“I am particularly concerned, if possible, to get vaccinations to 16 and 17 year olds,” Sturgeon said, adding that she hoped in time to be able to offer inoculations to the wider 12-17 year-old cohort “assuming it is safe” and the “risk-benefit analysis” supported such a move.
She added that the Scottish government stood “ready” to implement any recommendations from the JCVI regarding teenagers “as soon as possible”.
Some academics have raised the ethical challenges of vaccinating children under the age of 18. Sturgeon said any such move would have to involve “informed consent”.
Sturgeon also confirmed Scotland would lift most of the remaining coronavirus restrictions from next week, although she would continue to take a more cautious approach compared to the Westminster government in several key areas, notably homeworking and the continued legal requirement to wear face coverings in indoor public spaces such as public transport and shops.
The continued requirement to wear face masks would also apply to secondary schools for the first six weeks of the new school year in Scotland, which starts later this month, although the Scottish government announced an end to the “blanket isolation” of whole school classes when one pupil tests positive for Covid-19 as part of reforms that come into force on August 9.
From Monday, adults who are identified as close contacts of a person who has tested positive for Covid-19 will also no longer be forced to self-isolate if they return a negative PCR test, have no symptoms and two weeks have passed since their second vaccination. The same will apply to children over the age of 5, even if they have not received a jab.
Sturgeon insisted, however, that the easing of restrictions in Scotland from next week would not “signal the end of the pandemic or a return to life exactly as we knew it before Covid struck”.
“Declaring freedom from, or victory over this virus is in my view premature,” she added.
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “We continue to keep the vaccination of children and young people under review and will be guided by the advice of the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.”
