3. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Update on COVID-19 Vaccinations

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:04 pm on 26 January 2021.

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Photo of Rhun ap Iorwerth Rhun ap Iorwerth Plaid Cymru 3:04, 26 January 2021

(Translated)

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: