Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:01 pm on 12 January 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:01, 12 January 2021

I thank Paul Davies for that, Llywydd. He's right that we started with seven mass vaccination centres; we had 14 before Christmas; we have 22 today; and we'll have 35 by the end of the month. I'm confident that there will be one, as there should be, in Pembrokeshire because we want one in every county in Wales. The criteria that have been used to identify those centres are a combination of availability, accessibility and speed. We have to use locations that are quickly available to us. We need them in places where people can get to; people will be driving to them and they've got to be able to park, there has got to be all of those sorts of things, and they need to be the places that can be most speedily brought into use. So, those are amongst the criteria that have been identified in finding the vaccination centres.

I should say, because I know that the Member will be interested in this, that we've got 70 army staff now working with the Welsh Government on exactly those logistical issues. I came into work here in Cathays Park this morning at 8 o'clock and the first four people who went in in front of me were people wearing army fatigues, and we are very grateful indeed for the help that we are getting from the armed forces—both the 14 army vaccinators who are helping us directly with vaccinations, but the 70 other army staff who are helping us with the planning and the provision of the centres that we need and the facilities that go alongside them in every part of Wales.