6. Will the First Minister provide an update on the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine in Caerphilly to JCVI priority group 6? OQ56378

Llywydd, we're on track to deliver against our next target of mid April for groups 5 to 9, subject of course to supply. On Friday evening, the number of vaccinations administered by our NHS exceeded the 1 million mark. All 21 GP practices in the Caerphilly area have signed up and are delivering the vaccine.

With regard to unpaid carers, I've been approached by some in receipt of carers allowance who are concerned that they don't meet all of the three criteria for eligibility for vaccine in priority 6 that were released by the Welsh Government last Wednesday. Can the First Minister therefore provide an assurance that if you are in receipt of carers allowance, you will be called at priority 6?

I thank Hefin David, Llywydd, for that. We set out the guidance, as the Member said, on 24 February, and, as I explained last week on the floor of the Senedd in relation to people with learning difficulties who are also encompassed within priority group 6, our guidance is designed to take a more progressive view of the number of unpaid carers who can be identified as eligible for vaccination here in Wales. We didn't confine ourselves to carers allowance, because we thought that was too restrictive. I would be very surprised if there are people who are able to claim carers allowance who cannot bring themselves within the system that we have now agreed here in Wales. I'm very grateful to the carers organisations—Carers Wales, for example—who co-operated with us to draw up the online form that we will use so that people who are unpaid carers can demonstrate their eligibility for inclusion within priority group 6. Of course, if there are individual examples where people are not being identified through the route that we have set out, then we would be very keen to hear that so that we can put that right. But our aim is to have, as I say, an inclusive approach to priority group 6, including unpaid carers. We have to have criteria, Llywydd. We can't just have a self-certification system. But the system we have devised has been drawn up in agreement with carers organisations themselves.