Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:11 pm on 19 January 2021.
Well, Llywydd, I discussed that very issue with the First Ministers of Scotland, Northern Ireland and with Michael Gove at the Cabinet Office in our meeting on Wednesday of last week. We explored it with the most senior civil servant who is responsible for securing and dispersing supplies of vaccines across the United Kingdom. The point about our age structure was recognised in that conversation, and actions are being taken to make sure that it is taken into account in the supplies of vaccine, which will ramp up here in Wales and across the whole of the United Kingdom.
The figures of what happens elsewhere in the United Kingdom and what happens in Wales will, as I say, change week by week. What we are focused on is making the fastest and most efficient use of every drop of vaccine that comes here in Wales. We've used the Oxford vaccine that's come to us over the last two weeks; we will use the 80,000 doses that we have this week, and accelerating numbers beyond. And we will use all the Pfizer vaccine that we have before there's another delivery of it here in Wales. And the figures that will matter most to people—and I absolutely understand that there are people who are still waiting to be contacted. Our programme sets out that we would offer the vaccine to everybody by the middle of February; inevitably, there are some people who will still be waiting. I absolutely understand that they will be anxious and waiting to be contacted. The figures that will matter to them are the figures of how the vaccine is being deployed here in Wales, and the figures that have been provided this afternoon, by the health Minister and by myself, demonstrate that we are on track to deliver what we promised, in line with what is happening across the whole of the United Kingdom.