Scottish Labour has expressed alarm as the roll-out of the vaccination programme in Scotland slows.

The latest daily figures show that the rolling weekly vaccination rate plummeted by a more than third during June, resulting in more than 130,000 fewer people per week getting a vaccine dose.

This comes as cases reached a record high surpassing 4,000 cases in a single day, prompting fears of an increase in hospitalisations, deaths and other health complications.

Vaccination rates are particularly low in Scotland’s Covid hotspots. The three Health Boards with the highest rates of Covid – NHS Lothian, NHS Tayside and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – are also the three with the lowest vaccination coverage.

The Scottish Government’s reliance on the appointment system has caused widespread problems, with thousands of letters being sent to incorrect addresses.

In England the use of walk-in clinics open to all adults has helped boost vaccine coverage particularly among young people. However, so far in Scotland only NHS Lothian have any, despite the vaccine being available to younger demographics for months now.

Jackie Baillie has criticised the Scottish Government for being too slow to set these up at scale, and called for their roll-out to be a priority.

Scottish Labour’s Health and Covid Recovery spokesperson Jackie Baillie said:

“We are seeing more and more proof of the SNP’s botched handling of the current wave of the pandemic.

“At the very time we need to be ramping up vaccination, it is beginning to stall.

“The vaccine, along with test and protect, is our ticket back to normality – but on both counts the SNP have dropped the ball.

“With cases climbing by the day, we need to be vaccinating as quickly as supplies allow.

“The SNP have been dragging their feet for too long on walk-in vaccination centres. Setting up walk-in clinics for all adults all over the country needs to be a top priority.”