The next item on the agenda this afternoon is a statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services, an update on COVID vaccinations. I call on the Minister for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Today, we have published the first of our reports summarising progress against our national COVID-19 vaccination plan. These will be published every Tuesday from now on. These reports are in addition to the surveillance data published by Public Health Wales both daily and weekly, and the operational data being published by Welsh Government statisticians from today, which we will publish each Tuesday going forward.

According to the figures published at midday today, NHS Wales has vaccinated almost 290,000 people across Wales. That is just over 9 per cent of the population. We have seen a significant escalation in the pace of vaccine deployment here in Wales over the last couple of weeks. This is because we have seen an increase in vaccine supply, in particular since the introduction of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at the start of the month, and because of the continued expansion of our vaccination infrastructure. 

We hit two markers in our vaccination strategy last week. We offered all front-line Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust staff their first dose of the vaccine, and uptake is now over 65 per cent. We also exceeded our end of January marker to have more than 250 general practices deploying the vaccine. Last week, more than 300 practices were involved in running vaccine clinics and, up to yesterday, at least 329 were doing so. We are also making strong progress towards the final marker, and that is offering the vaccine to all care home residents and staff by the end of the month.

We are currently vaccinating, on average, around 1,000 care home residents a day. Over 11,000 care homes residents, which is about 67 per cent of this priority group, at least that many have now received their first dose of the vaccine. Over 74 per cent of care home staff have also received their first dose. At the end of last week, as I said, more than 300 general practices were running vaccine clinics. We have exceeded the plan's expectation for 250 practices. Our approach encompasses all primary care professionals, including dentists, optometrists and pharmacists, in the delivery of the vaccine. This includes a community pharmacy pilot, community vaccination centres and, from last weekend, clusters of GP practices running clinics in local communities. We heard a little earlier about the particular example in Nefyn on the Llŷn Peninsula. That was one of three GP cluster clinics that ran last weekend and they were estimated to have administered 3,000 vaccines over the weekend between them, many of those, of course, to the priority over-80s group. 

I know that Members will, of course, want to know and return to whether we vaccinated 70 per cent of over-80s and in care homes by the weekend. We don't think we quite got there. The centre closures and rescheduling of appointments due to the weather were a key factor in this.  What is clear and undoubted, however, is the heroic effort under way, with the numbers of people being vaccinated increasing every day last week as the week progressed, and I want to thank each and every person involved for their commitment to this ongoing national mission.

Members will be aware of the centre closures due to the adverse weather over the weekend in the Cwm Taf area, but also in the Swansea bay area. Centres were closed for safety reasons and vaccine appointments have been rescheduled. A number of GP practices also postponed weekend appointments to early this week, and that was absolutely the right thing to do. Members will also have heard about queues forming outside a vaccination centre in Swansea on Friday evening. Sadly, this was the result of someone needing emergency medical treatment as soon as they arrived at the centre. NHS staff are doing everything they can to ensure people don’t have to queue for their vaccination appointments, but sometimes, as I'm sure all Members will appreciate, emergencies do happen. Whilst the NHS does everything it can to make sure the vaccination infrastructure is resilient, these issues serve as a useful reminder that there are events outside of our control that will impact on the delivery of our aims. There is no doubt, however, that we are making good progress and building pace all the time.

Minister, I'd like to thank you for your statement. Like you, I do appreciate, and I am grateful for, the hard work of all those who are trying to carry out these all-important vaccinations. But, despite my gratitude to the front line, I really would like to challenge some of the figures that you've just reeled off and ask you a few questions on your statement. Whilst it is really good news that 290,000 people have been vaccinated, the reality is that simply not enough of the over-80s who are in the community have had the option of having a vaccine. You say that 52.8 per cent of the over-80s have been vaccinated, but it is a seriously missed target. So, Minister, could you please tell us what extended time frame you have now? What about some of the local health boards, such as Cardiff and Vale or, indeed, Hywel Dda, who are already sending out letters to the over-70s? Do you have an LHB percentage breakdown on each priority group?

You stated that some of the centres were closed due to the snow. Are you able to inform us of the numbers of centres or the numbers of planned vaccines that were closed, because I do understand that the weather played a part, but are you really saying that 42,115 over-80s did not get vaccinated because of the weather? The reality is that that's a daily target of some 22,000, which has only been hit three times in the past, so I think that there are other issues at play.

From my inbox, and inboxes, I know, of other Senedd Members, there are many, many over-80s who have not even heard, have not even been called forward for a vaccination, let alone had to have one rescheduled. I have a constituent who's 96 years old and lives on her own in Kilgetty—not a dicky bird from anybody about when she's going to get a vaccine—96. Yet, in other areas of Wales we're already looking at vaccinating over-70s. It's very piecemeal, and I'd be very grateful to know how you're going to be able to pull this together so, as Andrew R.T. Davies said in First Minister's questions, we don't have a postcode lottery.

The over-80s are a very vulnerable group. Therefore, Minister, I'd be very grateful if you could tell us what progress has been made on mobile teams visiting the most vulnerable in their homes.

Looking forward, and, sadly, it's likely that vaccines will need to be altered on a semi-regular basis because of the new variants that are coming through, are you able to give us information on what part Wales is able to play in the future development of any new vaccines?

Finally, Minister, I just wondered whether you could tell us what is being put in place to manage the anomalies of border villages and towns, where patients may live in Wales but be registered with a GP surgery in England or vice versa. These people who are neighbours are getting vaccinations weeks apart, and I know it's causing some unrest. It would be very good to have an update.

I do have a further slew of questions. I am conscious of the time, so I'll take the opportunity to ask my other questions during the Welsh Conservatives' debate on vaccines tomorrow. Thank you.

Thank you for that series of questions. The figures produced by Public Health Wales on over-80s are for over-80s in the community. Of course, some of the over-80s in Wales will be resident in care homes, and that data is being updated. You will have seen the BBC article last week that explained the lag in the data reporting and the fact that England report data at an earlier point than ourselves. We provide data with a level of quality assurance around it, but, still, there's a data lag within that.

On the local health board breakdown, I don't have an over-80s breakdown to provide to you. As we get more information, we'll be able to provide more information. As I said in my statement, every Tuesday we'll provide information, just as every Thursday Public Health Wales will, so you can expect there to me more and more data as it's available, because I do think transparency about the data is important to engender public trust. Being transparent with the data and, as we have seen, the significant increases in vaccine delivery are key, I think, to maintaining the level of public trust and confidence we all want to see in this programme. It is very much a national mission.

Five mass vaccination centres were affected, at least, by the conditions, but a range of additional GP clinics didn't go ahead, and, again, I think for understandable reasons. Also, as the First Minister set out yesterday, and I set out at the press conference yesterday, we're aware that there were a significant number of people who didn't attend for appointments. And that's entirely understandable—the conditions in large parts of Wales in the last two days have been treacherous. So, you'd understand why people haven't attended and why those appointments are being rolled forward into the rest of the week. So, people who don't attend will still be contacted and offered an alternative date.

The reason why a range of over-70 letters are going out is that we're planning ahead in each health board when they've made really good progress with the current stage of the vaccine roll-out. It will still be the case that some over-80s in different parts of Wales won't have had their vaccine yet, just as in other UK nations. What I don't think we should do is to hold back the ability for those parts of Wales who can do that and are on schedule to do so until everyone else has caught up. As I've said repeatedly, the objective is for all of us to go as quickly as possible through the priority groups and to make sure we're protecting our most vulnerable citizens. And I completely reject the suggestion that there is a postcode lottery in our delivery. I think, if you look right across Wales, you'll see that there is a significant amount of progress being made, and I think the differences are relatively marginal, and one or two anecdotes do not paint an accurate version of the national picture.

We have 14 mobile units that are already going around helping to deliver vaccinations. We also have members of the primary care team who are delivering vaccinations to people who are housebound, and again that's substantially led by our colleagues in general practice, which is why it's such great news that at least 329 general practices across the country are engaged in this work. And I'm tremendously grateful to the whole primary care team for working together in such a really incredible way to deliver the vaccine programme. That's why we haven't just got better access, but the pace of what we're doing. It's worth pointing out that, in the last seven days, Wales has the fastest rate of vaccination per head of population compared to every other UK nation. So, as to the demands for Wales to catch up with other UK nations, we are catching up with UK nations. We're going faster than the rest of the UK at present. And it was a few weeks ago when I was facing questions about why Wales was fourth out of the four nations—we're now second and making ground on England—which I know is a significant anxiety for a range of people, but this really is a programme that is delivering and delivering at a much greater pace.

In terms of new vaccines, Wales definitely punches above its weight when it comes to genomic sequencing, understanding what's happening with current variants and newer ones as well. And again, just as I think we can all take a measure of pride in our vaccine programme and the pace that we've seen in the last few days, we should take pride in the contributions that our scientists are making to understanding the new variants, the new potential threats that exist, and what that means for the ability of our scientists, including those people in private sector research, who are looking at having a vaccination programme that continues to meet the challenges that new vaccinations will present.

And on cross-border issues, we had a particular wrinkle when a Welsh office Minister suggested last week that there was a problem with vaccines not being offered to English residents who are registered with a Welsh GP. Actually, we've had a conversation, and I had a conversation at a health Ministers' meeting across the four nations, about this to try and resolve this. My understanding is that, on cross-border vaccination, we are doing the best thing possible, in terms of that everyone who's registered with a Welsh GP can get their vaccination, including residents in care homes. But I think there are some issues to work through, potentially, with indemnity issues, about whether or not people who are resident in a care home but have an English GP can actually have that delivered by their English GP or not, and we're making sure those people are not left behind in our care home programme.

When it comes to how people feel about what's across the border, it is almost always the case that you see something on the other side and you think that it must be better over there. Actually, I think people can take real pride in the fact that, as I say, we're going faster than any other UK nation within the last seven days. I look forward to further progress, and another week to build on the 130,000 vaccines we delivered this week. I'm confident we can do even more in the week ahead.

Thank you. Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you for the statement. May I first of all thank everyone—doctors, nurses, other vaccination workers, administrators in our health boards—who are all working so very hard to try and vaccinate our population? It's clear that the process has sped up, and we can all welcome that, but there is some way to go.

In terms of this failure in hitting the target of vaccinating 70 per cent of those over 80 years of age, yes, you're quite right, Minister, that we wanted to know whether you hit that target. You said, 'We didn't quite make it', but the figure from Public Health Wales, of course, is 52.8 per cent. It was not a matter of 'didn't quite make it', let's be honest about this, even if there is some data that still needs to be fed into the system. And if I may say, I don't think blaming snow over the weekend holds water. Of course, snow did cause problems in certain areas, but the problem was that you were still on 24 per cent of over-80s the middle of last week, and it was too high a mountain to climb. As I say, I'm pleased that things are moving in the right direction.

You say that 67 per cent of care home residents have been vaccinated. I'm quite concerned about that figure, I have to say. It sounds low to me, given how vulnerable that group is. And it also appears that there is some difference from one area to another. It's a group that should be quite easy to identify. In the Betsi Cadwaladr health board area, for example, they said yesterday that vaccination had been completed in 180 of the 200 care homes in the region and that over 90 per cent of residents had been vaccinated. They also said that over 90 per cent of front-line healthcare staff and care staff had been vaccinated, and 74 per cent is the all-Wales percentage that you've quoted today. So, can you tell us what you're trying to do to level things out across Wales, so that we can raise things up to the percentages we hear from Betsi Cadwaladr?

I'm pleased to hear that so many GP surgeries are now part of the process and that you have passed the 250 surgeries that you had as a target. Generally speaking, you say the capacity has increased, which is positive. I still have a question as to why that capacity wasn't built up in the months leading up to the introduction of the vaccination. But you said, in mentioning the different parts of primary care now participating:

'This includes a community pharmacy pilot'.

A community pharmacy pilot.

One—that was in the Llyn peninsula the week before last, I believe. We have over 600 community pharmacies, and we must ensure that they become part of the vaccination process as soon as possible. They want to participate. A pharmacist in my constituency in Valley contacted me over the past few days, saying, 'We want to do this, we are trained to do it, we have capacity to do it, let us do it.' If I may say so, the clear message I hear is: 'We could do much more if we had more of the vaccine.' Now, I've asked time and time again for data on how many of the various vaccines have been distributed to the four nations of the UK, how many are provided to each health board here. I ask again. You've mentioned the importance of transparency in your opening remarks. Well, provide that transparency here so that we can see any inequalities or blocks in the system. It is crucial, fundamentally important data.

Finally, I want to highlight the most recent concerns about that change of policy so that there would be up to a 12-week delay between the two doses of the Pfizer vaccine rather than the original three weeks. More concerns have been brought to my attention on this issue. There are concerns that it could undermine the effectiveness of the vaccination to the extent that you would have to start from the beginning. Now, I understand the idea of providing greater protection to more people, but are you willing to face the possibility that, to all intents and purposes, millions of vaccinations could have been wasted because of this change of policy?

I don't believe we've wasted millions of vaccines because of policy choices that we've made, but I'll start with your point about not blaming the snow. The snow was an obvious factor—an obvious factor—on Sunday and Monday, and it had a material impact. And the figures that we are publishing, the 52.8 per cent that Public Health Wales refer to—at least that many have received the vaccine. And, as I said in response to Angela Burns, we know that there's a lag before we get data that is brought up to date, but it is clear that we're unlikely to get to—that we're not going to get to the 70 per cent, when that is all reconciled for the end of Sunday. And that is being honest and upfront with people, and I think most members of the public will not be at all surprised that the snowfall we saw in large parts of the country had an impact.

When it comes to care home residents, at least 67 per cent have already had theirs—again, the same issues about data. It's also the case that, some care homes—we've had to work through some of our policy questions about red care homes, where they've got a number of positive cases. We're now in a more settled position that's now being applied consistently across the country. That's why we can be confident that every health board is working through these as the top priority group, and I'm looking forward to all of those homes having been covered by the end of this month—all those homes where it's possible to go into. A risk assessment approach is being used, as you would expect, so, if there is an active outbreak, where a substantial portion of the home, its staff and residents are covered, then that may mean that the vaccination programme can't go ahead within that home. I think everyone would understand why that is, but we've looked at risk assessments where there are one or two cases in a home and what that means to make sure the vaccine is provided more generally. So, we've worked that through, and we do think that we're now in a position to have, again, a real level of confidence to achieve the expectation I referred to by the end of the month to have completed this section of the population. 

In terms of the time to build capacity, well, with respect, we couldn't turn on all of the capacity when supplies were much more reduced, when we had issues about the use of the Pfizer vaccine. When we started, we couldn't deliver the vaccine in primary care effectively, we couldn't deliver the vaccine to care home residents. And you'll recall there was an unfortunate instance where the previous Conservative leader said that he thought residents had been left behind, which is not what had happened at all. It's a shame those comments have never been corrected. We're now in a position where supply is much more significant, with a mix of the vaccines. We're in a position to make a different and more flexible use of Pfizer, so our infrastructure is different and is better now. Much more significant, and it is the case that supply is the limiting factor. If we had even more of the AstraZeneca vaccine than we have today, then we could not only maximise the capacity that exists within general practice, but we could make use of the significant network in community pharmacy, as we are keen to do. It is the case, though, that general practice, working together, is able to effectively deliver the vaccine supplies that we currently have. And so we're looking at how we have that combination of mass-vaccination centres that make use of the skills of people who can be vaccinators as well in our wider primary care team and how we'll then be able to make much fuller use of the willing and highly professional workforce—and trusted, crucially—trusted workforce in community pharmacy as we expect supplies to increase further in the weeks ahead.

Now, when it comes to the share of vaccine supply, I am regularly asked this question by you and by colleagues in Plaid Cymru, and I regularly give exactly the same answer about us receiving our population share, and that continues to be the case. It continues to be the case that we receive our population share. It continues to be the case that, in the now weekly meeting that I'm having with the UK vaccines Minister, it's a regular topic of our conversations to make sure that there is a continued assurance on the level of vaccine we'll need to get to the mid February milestone for all four priority groups—the first four priority groups—to be covered. Because, for that to happen, we know that we will need more than our population share if there is only just enough to cover that within the UK. So, that is part of our challenge, it's part of what I have regularly raised, and there is a repeated assurance that all of those supplies will be available in time for us to be able to do that by the middle of February. And within Wales, we are absolutely providing vaccine supplies on a population share to each of our health boards.

And you will have seen some of the public comments and widely reported public commentary about some of the sensitivity over vaccine supply and manufacture between the UK and our partners in the European Union. There is an element of commercial sensitivity, which is why we haven't published more information today about the vaccine stocks that we hold, and I've made it clear that I want to be in a position where we can have a common publication between the different parts of the UK to be upfront about the vaccine supplies that we're holding. We're looking to work that through across all four nations. I respect the fact that there are current commercial sensitivities that mean that we're not in a position to do that today, but I want to do that as soon as possible, because I recognise that transparency is a good thing in terms of giving the public confidence about what we're doing and why.

Minister, constituents have raised with me issues regarding prisoners in Welsh prisons with regard to the vaccination programme. So, some prisoners who are in the top-four priority groups, and the immediate priority groups currently being vaccinated, have not received any information as to when they are likely to receive their vaccinations, and, understandably, they are wondering whether they have been overlooked or whether they will be hearing something in short order. There are also issues regarding new prisoners coming into prison and the testing regime that applies, and concerns that it is not as rigorous as it should be, and further concerns around prison officers in terms of priority for vaccination, although I'm sure that will be considered by the UK joint committee in their consideration of other groups that may have priority beyond the first four priority groups. Obviously, Minister, I know that there's cross-over here with UK Government responsibilities, but the prison population is very vulnerable, given the lack of space and the difficulties with social distancing, and many of the prisoners are in vulnerable groups in terms of their health and their general profile. So, these are important matters, and I wonder if you could say something today about how Welsh Government has been involved in consideration of these matters and will be involved as we move forward.

Well, as you'll know, responsibility for prisoner healthcare is now with my colleague Eluned Morgan, but in terms of the vaccine roll-out, that remains with me. Now, we are working through this from our responsibility for prisoner healthcare, but also a specific responsibility for the vaccine roll-out, how those prisoners who will be in priority groups—it's a matter of fact that the prisoner population is significantly less healthy than the wider population, with a range of additional healthcare needs. We also have an older prisoner population in Usk, as well, so there'll be a range of people there who will be in priority groups because of their age as well. We've had outbreaks within prisons, we've had fatalities within prisons, as well, so this is part of the population that we have responsibility for, and we are working through with colleagues responsible for running prisons how we will deliver within the first four priorities by the middle of February. So, the prisoner population is not going to be left behind. It's a matter of being able to work that through and then being able to deliver that with that particular group of the population of Wales. So, I hope that assurance is helpful. As we get more detail, I'll be happy to commit to writing a further statement either individually or on a joint basis with my colleague Eluned Morgan.

Thank you for your statement, Minister. I hope and pray that you are able to meet all your targets. Minister, are you content that we are administering every dose that we receive? There is widespread concern that the length of time between the two doses is far too great. Will you publish the JCVI advice that you have used to inform your decision to increase the time between the doses? Can you please outline how much protection is granted by a single dose of each of the available vaccines? The main barrier to quicker vaccination of the population is supply, so, Minister, are you able to update us on the progress being made on the approval of the other vaccine candidates, such as the one from Johnson & Johnson? Finally, Minister, we can't afford to waste this most precious resource. You have said that only 1 per cent of the vaccine has been wasted so far, but this amounts to thousands of doses, and thousands of people who could have been vaccinated have not received their first dose. So, Minister, what steps are you taking to reduce waste to around 0.1 per cent, rather than its current level? Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you. I don't know where you get the 0.1 per cent wastage target. Actually, the fact that we have a wastage rate of less than 1 per cent shows that we have a highly efficient vaccination programme, which is part of what we should take real pride in, that our NHS Wales-led programme is actually achieving. We are publishing from today wastage rates, so you'll get to see on a regular basis how effective and efficient we are being.

When it comes to the approval of other vaccination candidates, I'll just remind the Member and anyone else watching that it's not up to politicians to do this and it's an important part of our system that politicians don't approve vaccination candidates. The independent regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, approve vaccines for use and the basis upon which they can be used. It's an important safeguard in our system. They have to review the data and they determine whether a vaccine is able to be used. It's then up to politicians to make choices on the delivery of those vaccines. That is still very much the position. So, any other candidate vaccine will need to go through the same rigorous process, will need to have the same determination made by the MHRA. We have the third vaccine, which we expect to be available later in the spring, the Moderna vaccine. It's been approved, and that's when we expect to have supplies arriving within the UK. That's already a matter of public record. Any further approval will be subject to a public announcement by the MHRA in the usual way.

When it then comes to their use and the JCVI advice on the inter-dose interval between the first and second dose, this has already been published. It's not a matter of me publishing it, it has already been published and JCVI members have done a regular round of interviews for the last few weeks, explaining their advice, how they've come to that advice, the reason why the advice they've given covers the first nine priority groups, where 99 per cent of hospitalisation and deaths occur from COVID-19, but also, in particular, that advice on the inter-dose interval, which is classic public health advice on making sure that we provide as much protection as possible to the largest group in our population as quickly as possible, rather than providing a higher level of protection to a much smaller group of the population within the same time frame. It's part of the reason why Public Health Wales and their colleague agencies in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland support the JCVI advice on extending the inter-dose interval to 12 weeks. It's also why every single chief medical officer in the United Kingdom supports that advice. And it would be a very odd thing indeed if I decided as the Minister to overturn the advice of the chief medical officer, to overturn the advice of Public Health Wales and to overturn the advice of the independent expert JCVI on how to deliver a vaccine. It is not a position that I'm going to undertake. I would make the chief medical officer's position absolutely untenable if I did so. But, more than that, I would be ignoring the very direct advice that says that this approach will actually save lives and an alternative approach will cost lives. And I am absolutely not going to do that. 

Can I thank the Minister for his statement, and also it is appropriate to salute the heroic efforts of all involved in delivering this huge vaccination programme. I know my GP colleagues are absolutely chomping at the bit, and if they could get more vaccines, they'd be lining up people as we speak. So, there's a phenomenal performance happening as we speak.

One question, which I alluded to this morning in the briefing, and thank you—[Inaudible.]—Frank Atherton as well, and Rob Orford, for their involvement. But can I press you, here in a public forum, about the importance of the messaging concerning the vaccine? We've all seen the pictures of people being delighted to receive their vaccine, and it is in fact a great occasion, but it does take three weeks for your body to develop some protection against severe COVID infection after a jab. Obviously, you're more protected after two jabs, but you could still catch COVID, you just don't get the severe illness. That's the benefit of the vaccination: you don't get the severe illness and ending up in hospital. So, of having the jab, the important message is not to discard and ignore all those social distancing, stay at home and wear masks-type messages, because after vaccination, you can still pass on the coronavirus to others. So, celebrations indeed after getting a jab, but you still need to stay at home, and all the rest. So, can I ask you now what you are doing exactly to get that very important message across?

Thank you for your comments, and I agree with you that it's been a phenomenal performance from colleagues in primary care and right across our NHS Wales-led team to deliver the significant additional pace in vaccine delivery. And I'm pleased that you and colleagues find the briefings with me, the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser on health to be useful. We'll continue to do that.

On the vaccine messaging, I think this is a useful opportunity to restate that it does take time to receive the protection from the first dose of the vaccine, and so people can't have their vaccine shot and then act as if everything is normal for them and proceed to take greater risks. That wouldn't mean that they'd be benefiting from the protection at all. But even with the protection, you're right: the vaccines have been trialled and show data about protecting people from harm. That means you're much more likely to be protected from becoming seriously unwell and subject to hospitalisation or death, once the protection has kicked in. That does not mean, though, that you won't get COVID; it does not mean that you can't transmit COVID to another person, so it's really important that everyone still follows the protective measures that are in place for all our benefit. Even with significant numbers of people covered and protected, there is still going to be the potential for real harm to be done if there is a breakdown in social distancing, if there is much more mixing between people indoors, and people forget the protective behaviours of hand washing, or face coverings, and of having good ventilation.

It's particularly important, I think, to make this point when, sadly, our death figures in the last week have been so very high. We are starting to see an improvement across our NHS with the pressure, we're starting to see a levelling off and a slight levelling down in admissions, but that is against the backdrop of record highs of people in our hospitals. It's worth reminding people that whilst we're seeing an improvement, that improvement still means that critical care today is operating at 140 per cent, down from 150 per cent, but still 140 per cent of its normal capacity, so we all still need to stick with this for another period of time to make sure we don't lose people who don't need to fall off the road on the journey that we're on to the end of pandemic.

Minister, may I thank you for the update today and may I also thank you for everything else you're doing? Although my party would prefer the UK Government to be leading the programme rather than Welsh Government, that doesn't mean we don't appreciate the amount of work that's being put in. You seem to be working extraordinary hours under extraordinary pressure and I would like to thank you and everyone around you for that.

Could I ask about the over-80s target that was set at 70 per cent for the weekend? I think you said we're at 52.8 per cent on that. You said the snow was a material factor; can you estimate what percentage of vaccinations may have been delayed on account of that? And can you also tell us when you would now expect to hit that target of 70 per cent, and also when we might hope to catch up with the proportion of over-80s that have been vaccinated in England, which I understand is just shy of 79 per cent on the latest data?

Can I also ask you specifically about the Pfizer vaccine? There does seem to have been an acceleration in vaccination on the back end of last week, and that is something that we would applaud. Our numbers, though, still are substantially below what England has done cumulatively. Is the Pfizer rate accelerating? Have we moved away from the policy the First Minister explained of spreading out vaccination so that we didn't have any risk of vaccinators being idle for any period? Has that changed?

And I understand—I certainly don't want the Welsh Government to say anything like the Scottish Government did in terms of releasing inappropriate information—but what degree of confidence do we have in the continued supply of that Pfizer vaccine, particularly given threats or suggestions coming out of the European Union around the manufacture of that in Belgium? And what are the plans for—

Can you wind up, please?

Of course; final bit—the second doses for those who've already had the first dose versus moving down the risk profile in providing vaccination with that Pfizer vaccine?

Thank you for the questions. I'm not able to give you a hard percentage estimate of the impact of the adverse weather, but we are aware there was a significant amount of activity that was pulled, and rather than plucking figures out of the air, what I am committing to doing is to making sure that we continue to provide daily information, that we continue to provide twice-weekly information on a Tuesday and a Thursday giving more detail, so people will be able to see transparently the progress we're making on each of these priority groups, on the backdrop of the assurance of the much greater pace that we have demonstrated we can deliver when the supply is with us. 

I note that you asked about when we'll catch up with England on the over-80s. Actually, on some of the other categories of health and social care workers, we are, of course, ahead of England, but I'm only being asked about areas where we're behind England. All that information will be continue to be provided about where we are, and you'll see that again in the information that is being published on a daily basis by Public Health Wales. So, I think we have a good approach to being transparent with our data and our information, and in the level of assurance people can have that that published data is accurate.

We are accelerating in our use of the Pfizer vaccine. As I have said repeatedly, we are providing as much as our NHS can deliver. We know that we have new ways where we can be a bit more flexible in the use of Pfizer now as well, and that's a good thing too. So, we haven't just built up our infrastructure; we've got additional ways of using that as well. When it comes to commercial sensitivity, I think I dealt with this earlier in response to Rhun ap Iorwerth, and also in the opening as well. It's about making sure that we're as transparent as we possibly can be, but taking account of the sensitivities that exist around stock numbers.

When it comes to the second dose of vaccines, we are of course already planning for those, and we're having to consider then what that means in terms of the use of our stock, especially for the Pfizer vaccine, because the first groups of people who will be eligible for their second dose will be people who have had the Pfizer vaccine itself. So, we need to make sure we have stocks of those to deliver second vaccines whilst still being able to carry on the work of getting through the first not just four priority groups, but the first nine priority groups we have, with the vaccines available. That is partly why added supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine are so important to us. 

And finally, Rhianon Passmore. 

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Health Minister, I do welcome greatly your statement today that the vaccination programme across Islwyn, administered by Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, is doing well, and is further innovating. I also want to put on record my sincerest thanks to all those risking their lives across the front line, and also those in leadership roles during this war on COVID-19. I'm extremely heartened that a new vaccination centre is opening in Newbridge, and I welcome the innovative 'contact first' programme for Islwyn and wider. As of yesterday, over 48,840 people had been vaccinated across the health board, 20,471 people over 80 had been vaccinated, 14,000 front-line staff, and residents from 90 care homes. The vaccination programme has been going so well that GPs will be offering the vaccine to priority group 3 when all those over-80s have been vaccinated this week. So, First Minister, to what do you credit the successful roll-out of the vaccination programme across my constituency, and what assurances have we received that the very critical supply of vaccine will continue at pace so that the programme can accelerate even further?

It's good to hear praise for health boards, which I think are doing an extraordinary job in dealing with all of the pressures that our national health service face in this, the most extraordinary event that we have had to live through. This really is a genuine once-in-a-century event. No-one has had to deal with a pandemic like this, in modern times at least. 

When it comes to vaccine delivery, and in terms of supply, as I said, I'm having weekly meetings with Nadhim Zahawi, who is the joint Minister working between the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial strategy and the health department on vaccines, about the challenge over the messaging. We have relationships with Pfizer because of their broader interests and research in Wales. You'll be aware of the partnership that they've entered into with Swansea University and their interest in value-based healthcare; that's part of the reason they came to invest in Wales rather than another part of the United Kingdom, for that significant partnership. And also, there's the interest we have with AstraZeneca, who have their fill and finish plant in Wrexham. So, we're having conversations with them directly too. It's been a very practical working relationship between my officials—and the conversations I've had too. We're certainly in the position where they are both looking to increase their supplies, not just for the UK, but for the rest of Europe as well. There's a significant opportunity to help protect many, many citizens right across not just the continent but across the world, of course, and I'm very pleased that AstraZeneca have given a commitment to provide cost-price vaccines to other parts of the world. 

In terms of why we've made such progress in Islwyn, and indeed across Gwent and the whole of Wales, it's really because there's such a 'can do' approach. There is a real team Wales approach going through our NHS, through partners in local government, through the military assistance we've had, and that is a key factor in this. Our teams recognise that we are doing something for the nation here that will protect and save many, many lives, and bring us to the point where we can make more normal choices again, and be able to release some of the freedoms that we have all had to give up to keep us alive. I look forward to the day when the vaccine programme really has provided that level of protection to the public and we can look forward to much better figures for our national health service, not just with COVID but with non-COVID matters too. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer.

Thank you, Minister.

Item 4 and item 5 will be chaired by David Melding. So, I now hand over the chair to David Melding.

David Melding took the Chair.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer.