6. Will the First Minister provide an update on the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out strategy? OQ56102

I thank Angela Burns for that question, Llywydd. Plans for the roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been made and are now being activated. These plans will run alongside the existing arrangements for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, of which we continue to receive supplies.

Thank you for that. The first thing I have to say is that the vaccinations are a light in a very, very dark tunnel, and I'm deeply grateful, as I know millions of us are, to those amazing scientists who've come up with the vaccine programmes of all the different countries in such a short space of time. It's so important to get that vaccine roll-out into the community, because we all know that by tackling the community, then we can start to drive down this terrible coronavirus. I just want to pose two questions to you, where I've come across barriers or things that could be potential barriers to the roll-out of that vaccine in our community, because I think that time is of the essence, and it's very important that you and everyone else is really aware of this.

The first is that I've had GPs in Pembrokeshire come to me deeply concerned because district nurses have been told that in order to be able to vaccinate, they need to undertake basic life support training. It just strikes me, first of all, that district nurses, of all of us, will understand and know basic life support. It's a function of being a front-line healthcare worker. Secondly, they vaccinate every single day, for flu and all sorts of things. I did hear your answer to Paul Davies, and I do understand that some of the vaccinations do have side effects and we have to be really well aware of things like anaphylactic shock et cetera. But I wondered if you would have a look at this and see if that and those other barriers are stopping people who are trained professionals, who are already in the health service, from being able to be part of the vaccination programme, because I think it is key that we get as many people out there vaccinating as possible. 

And the second part is: I wonder if you are aware or can explain why health boards and, to my understanding, Public Health Wales, chose not to go down the route of getting a wholesale distribution licence for the vaccine so that they could then buy and sell it on, transfer it straight to the general practices, which would help again with the speedy deployment of the vaccine in the community, instead of the GPs having to go through quite an arcane ordering process, setting up new rules and regulations. Both of these have been queries that have been raised with me, and I'd be very grateful for your view on them either now or in a subsequent letter. 

Llywydd, I thank Angela Burns for that, and, of course, I'll look properly into the questions that she's raised, and if there's more to add, I'll write to her with it. 

I think she probably answered her first question herself. All new vaccines bring with them new risks. And even if you're a really experienced vaccinator in other contexts, it is just right that you are trained to make sure that you are aware of the risks that may be there and that you're equipped to respond to them. I want that to be done in the easiest way possible and the quickest way possible, and I certainly don't want to have people who are well equipped already having to go over things that they already know, but with a new vaccine, and a new virus—this time last year, we'd hardly heard of the virus, let alone of the vaccine to it—and making sure that the people we ask to do these really important jobs are as equipped as they need to be, I think, is important, and a bit of investment in that in the early stage will pay off hugely over the run ahead.

In relation to the ordering process, I think it is simply there in order to ensure fairness. We had only 22,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last week; we've only 25,000 doses of it this week. If we simply allowed GPs to be in a free-for-all for ordering it, there might not be any vaccine in Pembrokeshire at all because it would have been collared by GPs who just got quicker on the line and got it elsewhere. So, our ordering process is designed to make sure that there is vaccine available in every part of Wales, and as we bring them on stream, to every practice. We're hoping there'll be 34 practices in Hywel Dda, for example, every practice in the Member's own constituency, with vaccine to use by the week of 24 January. And having an ordering process that allows us to make sure that the limited supply we have is fairly available in all parts of Wales is what lies behind the system that we have. If there is more to it than that, I'll make sure that I write to the Member with a further explanation. 

Finally, question 7, Dawn Bowden.