8. How is the Welsh Government protecting and supporting all key workers in Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic? OQ56185

I thank Bethan Sayed for that question. Amongst the latest measures taken to protect and support key workers in Wales are last week’s strengthening of our coronavirus regulations in the workplace and in retail settings in particular. Such workers have been at the forefront of our programmes in PPE, testing and now vaccination throughout the pandemic.

Thank you for that reply. I'll declare an interest, because my son is in nursery day care. I've had quite a lot of nurseries get in touch with me where staff have told me that they don't seem to be appearing on any lists for the vaccine. They feel like they've been left behind. They are working day in, day out in a vulnerable position. They can't wear PPE when they're working with very young children, and they feel that they should be prioritised for the vaccine, and yet they're not hearing anything from your Government. Can you commit today to looking at this again and providing nursery staff with the priority of a vaccination? They should be appreciated by society and by Welsh Government by being given the vaccine, because they're working, and because they're working so hard. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Diolch yn fawr, Bethan Sayed. Can I just, first of all, absolutely echo what she said about the work that staff in that sector do, the nature of that work and its importance? If we need to do more to communicate to people in that sector where they lie in the JCVI vaccination priority list, then I'm sure our colleague Julie Morgan is listening. In fact, I can see her listening to this exchange, and she will follow that up as a result of it. I'm not able to depart from the JCVI priority list, for all the reasons that we've rehearsed on the floor of the Senedd previously, but where people simply feel that they lack information about where they lie in the priority list and what that means for them, I'm sure we would want to do more to make sure that they know and understand that, particularly in the circumstances that the Member referred to.