6. Will the First Minister provide an update on the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine in Caerphilly? OQ56227

Well, Llywydd, there have been fantastic efforts by all those involved in delivering the vaccination programme here in Wales at a rapid and an accelerating pace. In the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, 72 GP practices are participating in the programme right across the board's area, including all the GP surgeries in Caerphilly county borough.

I agree; I think the Aneurin Bevan health board has pulled out all the stops. It's been absolutely incredible to see a vaccine programme start from absolute scratch to what they're producing at the moment, which is 77 per cent of 80-year-olds have been vaccinated. That's probably gone up since the session started today. The concern of a few residents I've been in touch with has been with regard to queuing outside the centres, and one problem is that those people who have to catch buses from areas like Senghenydd, Abertridwr and Nelson will find that they have no choice but to arrive early, because that's how the buses work. I've been in touch with Caerphilly council, who are looking into community transport to try and deliver a better transport service directly to the centre for people. Caerphilly council have got back to me and have said they are investigating those options and would like to run it, also, on a regional basis. Will the First Minister, in recognising the huge progress that's made, also give some support to community transport provision to mass vaccination centres?

Llywydd, I thank Hefin David for that follow-up question, and he's absolutely right about what has been achieved in Caerphilly—over 7,000 people over the age of 80 already vaccinated in the borough. Somebody is vaccinated every five seconds here in Wales, so I'm quite certain, by the time this question is over, somebody in Caerphilly will have been vaccinated as part of that programme, and I think it tells us something, Llywydd, that we're now at that stage in the programme where we are able to focus on not just the huge infrastructure effort that has been made in securing all the mass vaccination centres, the over 400 GPs participating, the mobile units that are out there vaccinating as well, but we're able now to focus on the practical detail of the sort that Hefin David has highlighted this afternoon. Of course, we don't want to see elderly people, particularly, having to queue outside in the January and February weather, and making sure that there are transport opportunities for people who can't rely on their own cars when we ask them to go to a particular location to get vaccination, those are the sorts of details we're now able to grapple with. And in the work that is led by my colleague Vaughan Gething, and I join him every week in a meeting with the top team responsible for vaccination across Wales, we will make sure that we take up the issues that the Member has raised today so that we can assist the efforts of Caerphilly County Borough Council in making sure that the programme goes on being the outstanding success it is today.