Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:09 pm on 26 January 2021.
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.