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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:27 pm on 26 January 2021.

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Photo of Mark Reckless Mark Reckless Conservative 3:27, 26 January 2021

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—