IN this week's community column, Helensburgh's MSP Jackie Baillie says Covid optimism cannot turn into complacency, and calls for the vaccine programme to be accelerated to protect more people.

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AT the beginning of May it was really beginning to feel like Covid-19 would soon be contained.

Daily positive case figures were at an all-time low, the vaccine roll out was in full swing and even the weather had improved. There was criticism of the inconsistency in government decision making – why fanzones but not school sports days? – but despite that it seemed like better days were ahead.

But a few weeks on, we are back to seeing daily case numbers which are overtaking those at the peak of the second wave in January.

It is important to remember that, unlike during the first and second waves, our hospitals have not been overwhelmed by the number of Covid cases reported.

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Thanks to the vaccine, fewer people are becoming seriously ill and thankfully, far fewer people are losing their lives. This is all cause for cautious optimism.

But this optimism cannot turn into complacency – complacency among ourselves and, more importantly, complacency within government. They have been too slow to act in two important areas.

Our Test and Protect system is overwhelmed by the huge number of positive cases and many people are not being contacted in time and told to isolate. I have spoken to many local people who have gone without being contacted by Test and Protect for six or seven days. In one case it was nine days later.

The staff do their best but they are woefully under-resourced by the Scottish Government.

The virus will continue to spread through our communities until this is fixed.

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Unlike during the previous waves, it is our young people that are most affected. Half of all 18-29-year olds have still not received even a first dose of the vaccine. It is therefore not a coincidence that it is younger age groups that make up the vast majority of new cases.

As the First Minister has often said, we are in a race against the virus, so I have been calling for the vaccine programme to be accelerated.

At the start of July we were vaccinating half the number than in the previous month, and the government is sitting on more than 600,000 doses of vaccine, so there is no issue with supply.

If we are to beat the virus then urgent action is needed to ramp up vaccinations and better resource Test and Protect. We will need to learn how to live with the virus, and these are two important areas that we need to make more robust if we are to be successful in doing so.

And finally, after the week that marked the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the NHS, our thanks must go again to those doctors, nurses and social care workers that cared for us during the pandemic.