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.