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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:29 pm on 26 January 2021.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:29, 26 January 2021

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.