COVID-19 Vaccinations

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:27 pm on 19 January 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:27, 19 January 2021

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.