3. What action is the Welsh Government taking to speed up the rate of COVID-19 vaccinations in Wales? OQ56159

7. Will the First Minister make a statement on the progress of the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccinations in north Wales? OQ56127

I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. With GPs and pharmacies now delivering COVID vaccinations in Wales, we will step up the contribution of optometrists and dentistry to provide additional resource and capacity as volumes of available vaccine increase. 

Thank you. First Minister, you just had the audacity to say earlier in the questioning that, 'You can't trust the Tories', yet the people of Wales have trusted you to deliver this roll-out of the vaccine at speed to try and save the lives of the people of Wales, and you have let them down in some fashion. I welcome the comments by the health Minister earlier, but, quite frankly, your comments over the last couple of days to the media are bewildering, and I think that's a good use of word by the medical association. Like in England, this whole system in Wales needs to be more transparent. We are in a sprint to save lives, so what is the problem? If you're not holding the vaccines back, Minister, is the system the problem? Why are we so behind? If everyone got the vaccine in December, why are we so different? Why are we so behind? An excuse just now was delivery is a problem. Well, what are you doing to increase delivery, to speed up the delivery of the vaccine? People already are waiting, as Janet Finch-Saunders said, to deliver and to vaccinate people. They are wanting to vaccinate more people, and yet Community Pharmacy Wales has expressed concern at the lack of engagement they've had from your Government to expand the vaccine roll-out programme. What's going on, Minister? How can you justify us being so far behind everyone else?

Well, Llywydd, as I've explained and as the health Minister has explained, we set out our plans to vaccinate the whole of the top four priority groups here in Wales on a common timetable with the rest of the United Kingdom. We are on track to deliver on that promise. We will vaccinate the four priority groups by the middle of February. Letters are going out in Wales this week to people aged over 70 and in the previously shielding group to make sure that they are ready to receive the vaccine, which will be available to them in all parts of Wales at the accelerating pace that the figures for the last three weeks continue to demonstrate. All of those plans are there; what we need to make sure that we can deliver them is a supply of vaccine that matches our capacity on the ground to deliver it. The delivery mechanisms are there and ready, and will be expanded in the way that I explained to the Member. We need the supply of vaccine to match that, and then we will make sure that, as we set out in our plan, those four top priority groups will all receive the vaccine in line with everywhere else by the middle of February.

I received a request to group questions 3 and 7, and therefore I'll call Darren Millar to ask his supplementary on question 7. Darren Millar.

Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, the Betsi Cadwaladr health board, according to a written answer from your own health Minister, received just 17.3 per cent of the vaccine stock distributed by the Welsh Government to 8 January, in spite of having over 22 per cent of the Welsh population to look after. And just last week, GPs in north Wales who were part of the vaccine roll-out programme were told to postpone appointments because of delays in delivering vaccine stock. Now, this is coupled with what appears to be a slower roll-out of the vaccination programme in north Wales. Can you tell us why north Wales isn't getting its fair share of vaccine stocks, or certainly wasn't up until 8 January, and also why GPs can't use the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, given that it has a five-day shelf life even after being taken out of deep cold storage, because, as I understand it, that's one of the reasons why the ramp-up hasn't been quicker than it currently is in north Wales?

Llywydd, the Member is quite wrong in his description of the position in north Wales. By 8 a.m. yesterday, 31,095 citizens in north Wales had been vaccinated, and that is by some way the highest number of any health board anywhere in Wales. So, far from being held back, actually, the actions of the Betsi Cadwaladr health board are putting them in the lead of vaccination here in Wales. And that is because of the amazing response that we have had from the GP community and the community pharmacy community in north Wales. All 98 primary care practices in Betsi Cadwaladr have indicated that they wish to engage and deliver the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Now, Darren Millar is right that we had hoped to receive 26,000 more doses of the Oxford vaccine than will come our way this week. And that has meant that some plans that were there in north Wales to accelerate still further vaccination have had to be held back. The good news is that the UK Government assure us that we will get that supply next week, in addition to what we were already expecting next week. So that will be a very temporary downturn in the vaccine that we would otherwise expect. 

GPs in their own surgeries are much better equipped to deliver the Oxford vaccine than the Pfizer vaccine, for reasons that many Members will know. The Pfizer vaccine has to be stored in very particular conditions, not simply of temperature but in other conditions as well. It means the Pfizer vaccines are suited for the mass vaccination centres—three of them already in north Wales—and for the hospital-based vaccination centres—three of those in north Wales—and the GP community will focus on the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine. The success of that strategy lies behind the very considerable success that we are seeing in north Wales and which I know the Member will want to recognise and to celebrate. 

First Minister, I was very pleased to visit the mass vaccination centre at Rainbow Hospital in Deeside last week and see at first hand the mammoth efforts being undertaken to roll out the vaccination programme. And I want to take this time today to put on record my thanks and to pay tribute to all of the staff and all of the volunteers in Betsi for their hard work. 

We have heard some worrying news this weekend about the delays in the supply of vaccines. First Minister, will these affect the Welsh Government's ambitious target to offer everyone in the first priority groups a vaccine by mid February? And can the First Minister reassure me that every community pharmacy that expresses interest will be administering the vaccine across north-east Wales and, in particular, in Flintshire? 

Well, I thank Jack Sargeant for that supplementary question, Llywydd, and for what he said about the efforts that he has seen himself on the ground by people going far beyond what their contract would expect, working in the evenings, working at weekends, doing everything they can to make sure that as many people as quickly as possible are vaccinated here in Wales. 

The problems that have been reported with the vaccine supply are just a warning to us that that supply chain does have fragilities in it. We were due four batches of the Oxford vaccine to Wales this week. One of those batches, very late in the process, was identified as needing some further attention and therefore couldn't come to us this week. Members will have read some of the concerns that have been expressed elsewhere in Europe about issues at the Belgian factory of the Pfizer company. I think Pfizer has since confirmed that there are some issues at that factory and that will have some impact on its ability to ramp up supplies in the way that it had anticipated. These are problems, however, that do not simply affect Wales. They affect all those places that are relying on the vaccine coming through in the way that we would all wish, and the impact of the Oxford vaccine issues wasn't just felt in Wales, it was felt in other parts of the United Kingdom as well. We remain confident—to go to Jack's point, we remain confident that we will deliver the promise we made, that those top four priority groups will be vaccinated by mid February, and the contribution of community pharmacy will not simply be in pharmacies themselves, but will be made by community pharmacists helping at mass vaccination centres, where the skills and the abilities that they have built up, through, for example, the flu vaccination programme, will be put to very good use in making sure that those vaccines are delivered as quickly as they possibly can be to people here in Wales. 

I've had quite a lot of communication from people who are anxious because they don't feel that the Government has been proactive enough in telling them who is eligible and when they will get that information through. I've even had some comments and some phone calls to my office, as we've been speaking here, from over-80-year-olds saying they've had to chase appointments with the GP. I hear what you're saying—that they will find out in February—but I think people need to know loud and clear exactly when they will be having that information to allay any anxieties they may have. I've also been concerned with a lady who contacted me in my region who is over 80, but was told to go to a centre over 30 miles away. That simply is not acceptable. What can you do to allay her fears, that she will get another vaccine opportunity at a closer place, so that she can be protected from this most terrible virus?

Llywydd, can I thank the Member for those important points? I believe that all health boards have written directly to all residents in their area setting out the plans at a health board level for the delivery of the vaccine, and the Welsh Government's plan was, of course, published over a week ago; we've rehearsed that extensively here this afternoon. At the very local level, where GPs are vaccinating, then the information has to come from the practice, because of the way in which it is able to organise delivery of the vaccine in the most rapid way that it can. The individual that the Member mentioned who was offered a vaccine 30 miles away will have been offered it because that was the first possible opportunity to get vaccine to that individual. But, of course, if you are aged over 80, travel will not always be possible for you, and, in those circumstances, that individual will definitely get an offer from a much more local provider, whether it's her GP or whether it's in a community pharmacy setting. But the offer will have been made because of everything we have heard and the other people that the Member mentioned—people wanting to know, and wanting, of course, to get the vaccine as fast as possible—and the offer will have been made because that would have been the first possible opportunity to allow that person to get the vaccine that they will want. When it isn't possible for them to take up that offer, then a different offer will be made to them by the Welsh NHS, and one that they will in a position to take up.

Alun Davies.

I'm grateful, Presiding Officer, and thank you for your answers on this, First Minister. I visited the mass vaccination centre that opened in Ebbw Vale last Thursday, and I have to say it was an inspiring and uplifting experience to see the enthusiasm of the nursing staff, of the health service workers, working alongside the RAF personnel who were there managing the process—it was something that was really uplifting to see, together with the people, overwhelmingly over 80 years old, who had been vaccinated, and the sense of purpose of those people walking into the general offices to receive their vaccination and then feeling so confident walking out.

And do you know, First Minister, what people in Blaenau Gwent want is to see politicians working together to put people first, and not playing politics with their lives? That's what people want and that's what they tell me, and what they want to see is how we can expand and quicken the pace of the vaccination programme, when GPs and pharmacies are able to deliver the vaccine in their own community close to home. Can you, this afternoon, guarantee that GPs and pharmacies will be having doses of a vaccine, and will be able to supplement mass vaccination centres, to ensure that the people we want to take care of have a vaccine and are able to feel safe?

Llywydd, I thank Alun Davies very much for that supplementary question, and I agree with him completely. What people in Wales expect is a genuine team Wales effort to get this enormous vaccination programme done as fast and as effectively as we can. And it is inspiring when you talk to and hear from those front-line staff who are going far beyond what could reasonably be expected of them to make sure that the programme is a success.

And let me just give the Member just a couple of figures to bear out what he asked, because in Gwent, this week just gone, 14 GP practices had already commenced clinics using the Oxford vaccine. By the end of this week, 70 of the 74 Gwent practices will have received vaccine and will be carrying out immunisations in their local communities. Fourteen last week, 70 this week, and 72 next week. I think that just demonstrates the amazing commitment of our GP and primary care community, the speed at which that is being mobilised locally, and I think that will speak louder to people in Wales who want to see this succeed than anything that I am likely to say, and certainly louder than any of those who seek to run their efforts down.

First Minister, you've talked about the need to go slow with vaccinating people, but nobody else seems able to understand this, including the BMA. And three other Ministers, rather than explaining the thinking behind the go slow, have simply come out and decided that this is what is happening. Vaughan Gething, Kirsty Williams and Jeremy Miles are all saying that the vaccine is being rolled out as fast as possible. In other words, they are, all of them, totally contradicting your publicly stated policy. I wonder if you can explain why this is happening. We now understand from your response earlier today that the vaccination programme has not even been discussed at Cabinet level. Does your Cabinet understand your policy on vaccinating the Welsh people? Does anyone understand it?

Well, Llywydd, it would no doubt improve the quality of discussion here in the Senedd if the Member were to just listen to what has been said already. The Cabinet discusses all aspects of our coronavirus response throughout the coronavirus period, including vaccination. Let me put that point clearly to him so that he need not make that mistake another time.

As to the pace of the roll-out, let me just say it again: the policy of the Welsh Government is to deliver vaccination as fast as we can, for as many people as we can, as safely as we can, in all parts of Wales. Next time he quotes our policy, I look forward to him quoting that because he's heard it from me, and he's heard it from me repeatedly during the afternoon. There really is no excuse for the Member's confusion.

Yesterday, the Aneurin—. Sorry, can you hear me?

We can hear you. You can carry on.

Okay. Sorry, there was a technical issue there. 

Yesterday, the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board confirmed that all GPs in my constituency will be in receipt of the vaccine today and tomorrow. That's up from 13 in the whole board area last week. The vaccine centre at Ystrad Mynach is open indefinitely to help hit the four priority targets by mid February, and last week, nearly 11,000 people in our area were vaccinated.

I've had some concerns raised with me by residents who have relations in England about what they perceive to be a postcode lottery happening there, and it's in all of our interests to ensure that the whole of the UK is vaccinated as soon as possible. I want to recognise, after this past few days, the progress that's been made in the Aneurin Bevan health board area, and would the First Minister therefore recognise that, and the progress being made in Caerphilly?

Llywydd, I absolutely recognise the astonishing efforts that have been made in the Aneurin Bevan area, by staff of the health board and by people who are at the front line. That's particularly commendable, Llywydd, I think, given that only weeks ago the level of coronavirus in the Aneurin Bevan health board area was amongst the highest in the whole of Wales, and the health board has had to deal not simply with vaccination, but with all those people who have fallen ill with this virus, and the demand that that has placed on health services and hospital services, particularly in the Aneurin Bevan health board area. As of today, Llywydd, I'm very pleased to say that numbers in the Aneurin Bevan health board area continue to decline, because of the efforts that residents, particularly residents of the Caerphilly area, as we've discussed here in the Senedd previously, the enormous efforts they have made during the lockdown to help us to get those numbers heading in the right direction. The health board has taken every advantage of the opportunities it now has to mobilise its primary care community, to deliver vaccination in the way that the Member has already described, and at the scale that will be evident in the Aneurin Bevan area over the week ahead.

Now, I repeat what I said earlier, Llywydd: I am focused on what happens here in Wales, I'm delivering on the promise that we made. But, everywhere in the United Kingdom, you will find people raising concerns that people who are younger than themselves have been offered vaccination while they themselves are still waiting for it. You will have seen what Thérèse Coffey, the Cabinet Minister in London, has said yesterday about the part of England that she represents not having had a fair share of the vaccine available in England. All communities are anxious to make sure that they are getting everything that can be done. That is true here in Wales, and people in the Aneurin Bevan area can be very proud indeed of everything that their health service is doing on their behalf.