Vaughan Gething: Formally, Llywydd.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, once again, to the legislation and justice committee for their scrutiny of the regulations. Once again, the regular reviews they undertake do help us to make sure that the legislation fulfils its purpose and is appropriately drafted, and they have, from time to time, picked up what I think are small, but important, differences in the regulations, which we have then corrected, once...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Llywydd. I move the motion before us. Members will be aware the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) Regulations 2020 were reviewed on 18 February, and concluded that the whole of Wales should remain at alert level 4. This means that everyone must continue to stay at home for now. All non-essential retail, hospitality venues, licensed premises and leisure...
Vaughan Gething: I think people can have a high level of confidence about where we're going to get to, both in the middle of April, and, indeed, by the end of July, depending on supply. And it's supply that is the only issue that potentially holds us back. I think, to be fair, you'd have the same if you spoke to any of the NHS-led programmes in the UK. We could have delivered more by now if more supply was...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the points and the questions. I welcome your congratulations to the NHS-led team for the significant achievement already achieved to date, and the confidence in the future delivery of this NHS-led vaccination programme in Wales. And, again, you're right, we do disagree on the JCVI advice, how we should follow it, and whether we should prioritise one group and deprioritise...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the questions. There's no need to apologise for needing to take a break with a cough. On care home staff and the vaccination rate, you're right to point out there was a lower rate of take-up amongst staff compared to residents. That's partly a feature of the vaccine hesitancy we see from a range of age groups. Of course, care home staff are made up of people of a range of...
Vaughan Gething: I'm proud to announce that we have had another week of real progress and highlights for our vaccination programme here in Wales. One million people have now had their first dose of this potentially life-saving vaccine. This is fantastic news—another significant milestone for this truly remarkable programme. Once again, we've reached this marker ahead of the indicator date set out in our...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Llywydd. I'd like to thank the Petitions Committee for its work in considering these petitions and bringing them forward for debate today. Although the petitions are clearly at odds with another, I know that all of us will recognise the genuine nature of the concerns being raised, and the understandable passion that underpins them. We all want to see people affected by cancer...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. There is of course no doubt in anyone's mind about the contribution of key workers during the pandemic. The people who have kept us going throughout the height of the pandemic in the different ways we've experienced—workers not just in health and social care but in manufacturing, police, the armed forces, education, transport, utilities, local and...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I would like to thank both speakers for indicating their support for the regulations and acknowledge the questions within them. As Rhun ap Iorwerth knows, we are moving on a step-by-step basis, in line with the scientific evidence and public health advice. I'll come to that again when dealing with one of Mark Isherwood's questions—sorry, Mark Reckless's...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I move the motion before us. The No. 5 regulations, as Members will be aware, were reviewed on 18 February and concluded that the whole of Wales should remain at alert level 4. This means everyone must continue to stay at home. All non-essential retail, hospitality venues, licensed premises and leisure facilities must remain closed. We have, however,...
Vaughan Gething: Okay. So, I just want to be absolutely clear that the fall in supply that we've transparently highlighted, that we're expecting to see resolved from the middle of this week onwards with increased supplies, has meant that we have allocated the vaccine supply available to us on a properly proportionate basis to every part of Wales. It is absolutely not the case that any one region of Wales has...
Vaughan Gething: It's hard to give a definitive response to the Member's question because I haven't reviewed the data for other parts of the UK. And indeed, you'll see variation, in particular in England, because England is a big country, and we know there's significant variation within English regions. The south-west of England has still had the lowest impact of COVID throughout the pandemic; other regions...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, I'm happy to address the Member's question, not just today, but I'll also undertake that I'll specifically cover it in next week's vaccination update statement. Because, for example, I took my mother to have her vaccine on the weekend. She would not have got to the vaccination centre without me is the reality of it, so I was happy to do it; I'm her son and I think that's part of what...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, thank you for those questions. I'll deal with unpaid carers first. We published guidance last week on unpaid carers and I think that's brought a large amount of clarity, and the online form, which we have worked with national carers groups to agree, that should provide a more generous understanding of who an unpaid carer is than some of the initial guidance from the JCVI, which has...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, and thank you for your words of thanks and appreciation. I know that the team across Wales would appreciate support from all sides of party politics for the work that is being done in every part of Wales. And, actually, across all four countries, the vaccination programmes are moving pretty quickly. Certainly, against other international comparators, we're doing very well in every...
Vaughan Gething: Sorry, I saw you talking, Deputy Presiding Officer, but I didn't hear who you'd called to ask questions first. Unless there are, of course, no questions.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Llywydd. Last week was a week of real progress and highlights for our successful vaccination programme here in Wales. Members will be aware from my written statement on Saturday that we have now reached the 1 million total doses delivered mark, and this is an incredible achievement. We've reached this milestone in just 12 weeks. I'm tremendously proud of the team who have delivered...
Vaughan Gething: On Friday, we published an update to our national plan. While less than two months since we published the plan itself, a lot has happened with our programme. I want to reflect on progress and provide more information on our current and future priorities. In the updates, I confirmed that two key target dates have moved forward. The first is the target date for offering the vaccine to all those...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I'd like to thank David Melding, Angela Burns and Hefin David for their contributions today, for the thoughtful nature of those contributions, and the manner in which they were put on a subject matter that is difficult, upsetting and life-changing. And I recognise what Angela Burns has said about the bias and the challenges over women's health, and...
