VACCINATION rates in Scotland will soon catch up with England, Nicola Sturgeon has promised.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the First Minister said jags north of the Border were now being done proportionately "at a higher rate than England".

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The SNP leader has been forced to defend Scotland’s vaccine roll-out in recent weeks.

Unlike in England, the Scottish Government focused on getting the jabs into care homes as a priority.

While a much more time-consuming approach, the Government said it would ultimately do more to stop the virus.

Around 98% of care home residents in Scotland have now had the jag, it’s not entirely clear what the number is south of the Border. 

The UK Government has only said all care home residents have now been “offered” the first dose. 

As of 8.30am on Wednesday, 649,262 people in Scotland have now received the first dose of the Covid vaccine, up 38,484 on the day before, a 59% increase in the number of vaccinations given out compared with the same day last week.

While that’s a huge ramping up, it’s only around 11.88% of the population, behind England where the same figure for England is currently 15.39%.

By mid-February the government aims to have vaccinate the 1.1 million people in the four highest priority groups  - all those over-70, care home residents, frontline health and social care staff and the clinically extremely vulnerable.

During the interview, Sturgeon also said it was “over-simplistic” to say the UK’s ability to procure more coronavirus vaccines was a benefit of Brexit. 

The First Minister was asked about comments made by SNP MP Dr Philippa Whitford last July when she said the UK Government should be working with EU partners to find a vaccine.

Interviewer Susanna Reid suggested the UK now managing to get vaccines because it is not part of the EU vaccination programme "must be one of the most powerful arguments for Brexit".

The SNP leader replied: "I think there's a bigger point but I'm not going to sit here and say anything other than I think it's really good that the UK has managed to procure as much vaccine and that the UK as a whole is getting ahead in terms of vaccine.

"We all have an interest in seeing all countries get the populations vaccinated because this is a global pandemic but I think the UK is in a very strong position.

"That the vaccination procurement and the approval of the vaccines started while the UK was still in the EU transition period, the rules around the European Medicines Agency would have allowed that to happen anyway."

She added: "Of course you can make that argument but sometimes I think it's a slightly over-simplistic argument, but we should all be pleased that the vaccination programme is going so well.

"The issues around Brexit are much wider and more fundamental but even on this narrow point I think if you were to apply really detailed scrutiny it wouldn't be quite that simple.

"The UK, even if it had still been in the EU under the rules of medicines approval would still have been able to take decisions around vaccines as it has done.

"But it's thoroughly a good thing that the UK has got such good supplies. Obviously all of us want to make sure those supplies keep flowing.

"The UK Government procures on a four nations basis - that is something we voluntarily signed into - but it's a good thing, and we should be pleased about it."