The COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-out

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:31 pm on 12 January 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:31, 12 January 2021

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.