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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:57 pm on 2 March 2021.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:57, 2 March 2021

Thank you, and thank you for your words of thanks and appreciation. I know that the team across Wales would appreciate support from all sides of party politics for the work that is being done in every part of Wales. And, actually, across all four countries, the vaccination programmes are moving pretty quickly. Certainly, against other international comparators, we're doing very well in every nation of the UK, and in Wales in particular we are making sure that we're delivering the second doses. You'll recall some stakeholders were concerned that we wouldn't be able to deliver second doses in time. We're managing our stocks, in particular the Pfizer vaccine, to make sure we are delivering second doses. So, that's a key feature in our response. 

And you talked about partnerships with community pharmacy in particular and about the challenge of delivering second doses. Actually, we'll need community pharmacy to come on board not so much to deal with second doses but, actually, because we expect to see more supply come in, and that means that our current model of being general practice-led, together with mass vaccination centres, will need to have pharmacists and other injectors not just attending at mass vaccination centres, but we're likely to need more pharmacy on board. So, every health board over the next month will be bringing more community pharmacies on board to help deliver the programme as the scale expands outwards again to deliver the pace that we all want to see. 

Now, on your question about people living in Wales who aren't ordinarily registered here or aren't registered with a GP, we've been very clear that we'll vaccinate anyone who is in Wales, so students and others can be vaccinated. On your example of people delivering care, I've had this instance brought to me before, and the starting point should be that people should try to get themselves registered as a temporary resident with a local general practitioner, because part of the challenge to the health service is that if we don't know that someone is here, then we can't vaccinate them. Once we do know that they're here, then we'll provide a vaccine. There won't be any attempt to try to screen people out, and I've had the individual example you were giving raised with me. It's a relatively small number of people, but it's important that they're protected, and that would make a difference to the people that they're caring for as well.

In terms of comms for lower uptake groups, we can't really judge the success of that yet. I attended a meeting hosted by the constituency Members for Newport, Jayne Bryant and John Griffiths, with the health board and others last week. That had a good attendance from local faith leaders and members from local communities, and our challenge is that each step outwards that we make gets more people engaged and, actually, the feedback from people delivering the programme is that every time they engage with people who are reluctant, they have a very high success rate of people who are then prepared to take up the vaccine. And I really do think the work that lots of our doctors and other healthcare workers are doing, in going back to the communities that they come from so that there is that trusted professional face, is actually really helping to make a difference—Muslim Doctors Cymru being a very good example. There are others too. And that work is making a difference. It's also important to recognise that the role of faith in some of our communities is stronger than in others. So, having local imams and lots of church pastors, where lots of African and Afro-Caribbean communities attend to, having them being positive and on board makes a real difference in terms of people coming forward, just as, if those figures are expressing hesitancy or concern, it helps to move things in the other direction. So, I don't think just yet we can really judge the success or otherwise, but it is something that I am very keen to keep a watching eye over, because we're largely talking about groups who have a higher rate of mortality and harm from COVID as well.

On your broader questions about, really, the COVID control plan and where we're going to be able to go with our three-week reviews, it's always a balance, and, when we originally set out the COVID control plan, we were dealing with a situation pre the Kent variant. So, we now know that we have a variant that is dominant across Wales that is much more contagious, and that has an impact on the R figure of between 10 per cent and 50 or 60 per cent. So, we have to think of the current levels that we've got and the ability for that to increase further. That's why we've had this scientific evidence and public health advice that we have about schools opening on a phased basis. They continue to be our priority. But we also have some advice that says we have an extra element of headroom available, and we'll need to consider how to use that in a cautious manner to allow other areas of activity, whilst we are committed to phasing the re-opening of face-to-face learning in schools and colleges, but to do so in a way that doesn't compromise our ability for all learners to return to face-to-face school and college immediately after the Easter break, as you've heard the education Minister indicate is her preference, and indeed the preference of the Government. So, we're going to continue to set that information out in a way that makes sense, from myself, the First Minister and other Ministers, and you can expect a proper update at the end of the next three-week review, to give you and the rest of the country more certainty on the next steps out of lockdown.