Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:47 pm on 3 November 2021.
Thank you very much for that. It's very important that people who have an invitation to go for the booster do take the opportunity to do so. I'm pleased to say that the rates are among the highest in the UK in terms of the boosters at present, but we have a long way to go, of course.
We're very aware that the situation is very different to the first round because during the first vaccination round we were using AstraZeneca, and that was easier to deal with in local communities. With Pfizer, we have gone for centres that are larger, and so that means that, in certain rural locations, it's more difficult for people to reach them. That's why I think it's important that there is an opportunity for people to get there. I know that in the Hywel Dda area, for example, there is an opportunity for people to phone ahead to arrange transport to reach those centres, so I think it's worth looking into seeing whether that service is available in Betsi Cadwaladr, and I'm happy to ask them, if they don't offer that, to look into whether they could consider that. But given that it is an area where you need a lot of people going to a large centre, I do think that people will have to travel further this time, I'm afraid.