Vaughan Gething: Yes, thank you. I think that's one of the things that has been largely overlooked—the fact that NWIS, who at times have been criticised, have actually delivered a bespoke piece of software to really help us understand what we're doing, and to make sure, not just in terms of recording information, but that that information is then going to be used to make sure we're generating new...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the list of questions. I'll try to go through these quickly to allow time for other questions, Llywydd. In terms of whether we can move faster on completion, that is really a circular question, because it goes back to supply. If you have more supply of more vaccines, as long as they're approved as being safe and effective, then we can go faster, and I think we've demonstrated...
Vaughan Gething: On progress on those people who are refusing, part of our challenge obviously is that the vaccination is voluntary, and so there are people who for different reasons are more or less anxious about what to do, and it builds on your point about communication, about the range of concerns that there are, so we are looking at, as we've gone through this, understanding more of the concerns that...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions. In particular thank you for recognising the progress that is being made and the pace of what we're able to deliver in Wales with a joint team approach. On the questions, with the death toll that we're still seeing, it's a reality that, as we're going in the right direction, we're still going to see relatively high numbers of people coming to harm, and...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Llywydd. Today we have published the second of our reports summarising progress against our national COVID-19 vaccination strategy. These reports are published every Tuesday, in addition to the surveillance data being published by Public Health Wales that is published both daily and weekly, and the operational data that is being published by Welsh Government statisticians....
Vaughan Gething: —the total cumulative number of vaccinations and we will continue to do so openly and transparently. We have scale and pace in our programme. As long as we receive our fair share of vaccines in fair times, I'm confident we'll achieve the milestones set out in our strategy.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome the opportunity to debate the roll-out of the COVID vaccine programme today. The vaccination programme is our top priority, and we're doing everything we can to vaccinate as many people as quickly and as safely as possible with the minimum amount of wastage. We should all reflect upon how far we've come in such a short space of time. The...
Vaughan Gething: I formally move, Chair.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I want to thank Dai Lloyd and Members for bringing this important issue to the Chamber, and for Members' contributions. I have listened to what the speakers had to say and I am generally supportive of the motion. We are aware, as indeed many speakers have set out, of the impact that COVID-19 has had on stroke services since the earliest days of the...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you. I'd like to thank the Chair of the legislation and justice committee for his report on the committee's scrutiny, and as ever, we will address, as he indicated, each of the areas, to ensure that the law is correctly stated. As I said, I think it's always a useful function, especially given that we're having to legislate at pace on a regular basis throughout the pandemic. I'd like to...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, acting Deputy Presiding Officer. I move the motion before us on the two sets of amendment regulations before us today, the first of which is the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Restrictions) (Amendment) (No. 2) (Wales) Regulations 2021. These amend both the international travel restrictions and the more general coronavirus restrictions No. 5 regulations....
Vaughan Gething: It's good to hear praise for health boards, which I think are doing an extraordinary job in dealing with all of the pressures that our national health service face in this, the most extraordinary event that we have had to live through. This really is a genuine once-in-a-century event. No-one has had to deal with a pandemic like this, in modern times at least. When it comes to vaccine...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the questions. I'm not able to give you a hard percentage estimate of the impact of the adverse weather, but we are aware there was a significant amount of activity that was pulled, and rather than plucking figures out of the air, what I am committing to doing is to making sure that we continue to provide daily information, that we continue to provide twice-weekly information on...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for your comments, and I agree with you that it's been a phenomenal performance from colleagues in primary care and right across our NHS Wales-led team to deliver the significant additional pace in vaccine delivery. And I'm pleased that you and colleagues find the briefings with me, the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser on health to be useful. We'll continue to...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you. I don't know where you get the 0.1 per cent wastage target. Actually, the fact that we have a wastage rate of less than 1 per cent shows that we have a highly efficient vaccination programme, which is part of what we should take real pride in, that our NHS Wales-led programme is actually achieving. We are publishing from today wastage rates, so you'll get to see on a regular basis...
Vaughan Gething: Well, as you'll know, responsibility for prisoner healthcare is now with my colleague Eluned Morgan, but in terms of the vaccine roll-out, that remains with me. Now, we are working through this from our responsibility for prisoner healthcare, but also a specific responsibility for the vaccine roll-out, how those prisoners who will be in priority groups—it's a matter of fact that the...
Vaughan Gething: I don't believe we've wasted millions of vaccines because of policy choices that we've made, but I'll start with your point about not blaming the snow. The snow was an obvious factor—an obvious factor—on Sunday and Monday, and it had a material impact. And the figures that we are publishing, the 52.8 per cent that Public Health Wales refer to—at least that many have received the...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for that series of questions. The figures produced by Public Health Wales on over-80s are for over-80s in the community. Of course, some of the over-80s in Wales will be resident in care homes, and that data is being updated. You will have seen the BBC article last week that explained the lag in the data reporting and the fact that England report data at an earlier point than...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Today, we have published the first of our reports summarising progress against our national COVID-19 vaccination plan. These will be published every Tuesday from now on. These reports are in addition to the surveillance data published by Public Health Wales both daily and weekly, and the operational data being published by Welsh Government statisticians...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to thank most Members for their contributions to today's debate. I think that's only really one and a half, perhaps. I didn't agree with much of the fake news and reality denial and what I thought was a highly irresponsible opening from David Rowlands. When we talk about 'the pandemic', it is very real. We have 16 per cent excess deaths in Wales,...
