4. What is the First Minister's current assessment of the spread of the Delta variant in Clwyd South? OQ56670

I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. The delta variant is now widespread both in Clwyd South and elsewhere in Wales. Our vaccination programme continues to offer the best means of combating the spread.

Thank you, First Minister. Being fully vaccinated against COVID is clearly a citizen's best defence against this terrible virus and the many variants of it. Could you just outline how, in addition to being amongst the world's very best performing nations in terms of the first dose, Wales is so successfully accelerating the roll-out of the second dose of the vaccination?

I thank Ken Skates for that. He makes an important point, of course—that one dose is not a sufficient protection against coronavirus, particularly the new delta variant. We're in a very good position in Wales, Llywydd, because we completed our offer of the first dose of vaccine to all adults in Wales well ahead of our original plans, and well ahead of other parts of the United Kingdom. This means that we've been able to switch the focus of our programme even more now to accelerating the take-up of second doses of the vaccine, and the figures are very encouraging here in Wales. We have over nine out of 10 people already having a second dose of the vaccine amongst care home residents, people aged over 80, people aged over 70, healthcare workers, and, as from tomorrow, I believe, we will go above 90 per cent for everybody in their 60s as well.

Today's figures show that 87 per cent of people aged 55 to 59 already have both doses of the vaccine in Wales, and what we are doing with the 0.5 million doses of the vaccine that we will provide over the four weeks before we next review the coronavirus restrictions is to reduce the length of time between first and second doses of the vaccine to no longer than eight weeks for everybody aged over 40. That means that by the time we come to review our regulations, people over 40 in Wales will be very well placed indeed to have the full protection that vaccination provides.

And I'll echo what Ken Skates said, Llywydd, about the importance of that, and our central motto here in Wales, that it's never too late to come forward for vaccination in Wales. Whether that is a first dose, or whether you've missed out on a second dose, all you have to do is to contact your local health board and arrangements will be made for you to catch up on what you have missed out on. And that's very important for the individual, but it's very important because the more people we have vaccinated in a double dose, the greater protection we all have from the virus and for any future variants that it may throw our way. 

Thank you, First Minister, for your response to Mr Skates there. May I join you and the Member for Clwyd South in the encouragement for everybody to get hold of this vaccine as quickly as possible because, as you say, it makes such a difference to everybody? I recently had the privilege of visiting a community pharmacy in my region, in which there was a COVID clinic and they were administering the COVID vaccine to those who were able to access the community pharmacy. And it struck me while I was there that, actually, community pharmacies have such an important role to play, and perhaps a bigger role to play in the future in administration of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

So, in your desire, and all of our desires, to see the acceleration of the vaccine, both in Clwyd South and across Wales as a whole, will you commit to working with community pharmacies to see how they can play a bigger part in supporting the acceleration of the vaccine in Wales?

Well, Llywydd, I certainly agree with the Member about the part that community pharmacies have played in the whole vaccination effort. It's been the strength of the way we've done things in Wales that we've had a multidimensional way of delivering the vaccine, through primary care, through community pharmacies, through mass vaccination centres, through mobile vaccination centres.

What we've tried to do is two things, I think. One is to calibrate the delivery mechanism to the geography of a particular part of Wales, and then, secondly, to calibrate the delivery to the different age groups that we are targeting, and to provide opportunities for vaccination in a way that meets the life circumstances of different age groups. And in that, community pharmacy has played a very important part, and will, I know, be part of the mixed repertoire of vaccine provision for the future as we look to go on making sure that we provide offers of vaccination in a way that is the most convenient, the most easily accessible, and the most readily available to people in order—and, again, I thank the Member for what he said, and echo what he said—in order that we get the maximum number of people possible vaccinated in Wales.