1. Will the First Minister provide an update on Welsh Government measures to tackle COVID-19 in the Caerphilly county borough area? OQ57168

Llywydd, I thank Hefin David for that question. Vaccination remains the most effective action to tackle coronavirus. Take-up rates in the Member’s constituency remain high, with 75 per cent of 16 and 17-year-olds already having had their first vaccine. I continue to thank Caerphilly residents for their support in this and other actions needed to reduce current levels of the virus.

Before I move to my supplementary, Llywydd, with your permission, I'm sure Members are aware of the tragic events that took place yesterday in Penyrheol in my constituency, where a young 10-year-old boy was attacked and killed by a domestic dog. The boy's been named as Jack Lis, and I'm sure that everyone in this Chamber would wish to send their condolences and best thoughts to the family and the community of Penyrheol, who undoubtedly will rally round in these circumstances. I'd also like to say that on behalf of my fellow regional colleagues in the Conservative Party and in Plaid Cymru as well, because I know we all feel the same. Diolch, Llywydd. 

So, my supplementary question: the issue of COVID passes will be debated today. I'll be voting for the extension to cinemas and concert halls. I'll be doing that not because of the whip, but because I think it's absolutely the right thing to do. And the majority of people who've contacted me have said exactly the same thing. The purpose of these is to prevent further lockdowns and keep us all safe. With that in mind, will the First Minister give us an outline of the success so far of COVID passes, and an outline of how we'll proceed in the future?

Llywydd, I thank Hefin David, and can I also begin just by associating myself with what he said about the very sad events in his constituency? Members here will be thinking about Jack and his family, I know. I read what the headteacher of Cwm Ifor Primary School had to say about him, and you can just imagine the impact that this will have on those very young children who will have known him and would have, in some case, very sadly, witnessed those awful events. 

As to the COVID pass, I thank Hefin David for what he said about it. I think it has gone as well as we could have hoped for in its implementation here in Wales. I heard many of the things that were said in the previous debate about the practicality of the COVID pass, and, in practice, it has turned out to be as straightforward as we could have imagined. We've had a series of major events with thousands and thousands of people attending. I attended myself at the Arms Park only a week ago. I looked very carefully to see how people were behaving as they got near the turnstiles and was hugely encouraged at the way in which people had thought ahead, were well prepared, knew what they were doing. Every person attending was checked as they went through, and, more than that, Llywydd, I was absolutely struck by the number of people who came up to say me at that event that they had been nervous about attending. 'Seventy thousand people', somebody said to me; 'I've been so careful. I barely go out, and I knew I was coming here knowing that the person I was sitting next to, the person behind me and the person in front of me had all been doubly vaccinated or taken a very recent test. That gave me the confidence to come here today.'

And that's why I think the COVID passes are popular amongst people here in Wales, because, as Hefin David said, they are helping to keep Wales safe and they are helping to keep Wales open. That is the purpose of them—to allow those more vulnerable settings to continue to be open into the autumn, through the winter, because that extra protection is now in place. 

The numbers of people falling ill with coronavirus, thankfully, have reduced a little over the last 10 days, and if they continue to do that, then there will be no need to extend the pass beyond the extension that the Senedd will be debating this afternoon. But if numbers were to rise again, and if the protection of that pass were needed in more settings, then this Welsh Government will not hesitate to take those actions that help to keep people in Wales safe and help to keep those businesses trading.

First Minister, I appreciate your response to my honourable colleague. Caerphilly continues to have the highest number of newly recorded cases of COVID in my region of South Wales East. You are a learned person, and I'm sure you've seen the stories that the UK medicines regulator has recently approved the first antiviral medication for COVID that can be taken as a pill, rather than injected or given intravenously. In clinical trials, the pill cut the risk of hospitalisation, or death, by about half, but needs to be given within five days of symptoms developing to be the most effective. The treatment has been described as a game changer, and the UK Government agreed to purchase 480,000 doses. First Minister, what discussions has your Government had about obtaining supplies of this drug for COVID patients here in Wales, and when can we expect this treatment to begin, and will priority be given to areas such as Caerphilly, where COVID rates remain stubbornly high? Thank you very much.

I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. The news that the regulator has approved a new antiviral oral medicine is good news. We have been in discussions with the UK department of health. What is planned is a large-scale study, using those 480,000 doses. And that study will be used to identify, in the way that the Member suggested, the clinical circumstances in which that treatment can most effectively be delivered. Wales will be part of that pilot. There will be patients in Wales who will be part of the work that will be carried out to make sure that we are learning everything we need to about this new possibility and then put it to best use. And we continue to work closely with the UK department on this matter to make sure that Welsh patients have access to the treatment and that we all benefit from the work that will be carried out.

I associate myself entirely with what Hefin said about the community in Penyrheol.

First Minister, last month, Public Health Wales launched a campaign encouraging pregnant women to have the COVID-19 vaccine because of how many unvaccinated women end up needing hospital treatment. One in six COVID patients requiring the highest form of life support in England are unvaccinated pregnant women, but PHW haven't released equivalent figures for Wales. They say misinformation may be making women reluctant to have the vaccine, even though it's safe, while the risk the virus poses to them is severe. Only around 15 per cent of pregnant women in the UK have been fully vaccinated, compared with 79 per cent of people in the general population. I'd be grateful, First Minister, if you could tell us what the figures are like for Wales, and could you also tell us what the Welsh Government will be doing to tackle misinformation so that pregnant women in Caerphilly county, and right across Wales, can hear about how getting the vaccine could help save their life?

I thank Delyth Jewell for making exactly that point, Llywydd. The Chief Medical Officer for Wales has led efforts to try to combat misinformation, and particularly to appeal to pregnant women to be vaccinated. They are far, far more at risk from coronavirus than they ever will be from the vaccine. And this is one of those examples where deliberate misinformation causes real harm. I don't have the actual figures in front of me, Llywydd, but I do know that unvaccinated pregnant women are very significantly over-represented in critical care beds in Wales, as well as across the border. In other words, women are not just falling ill with coronavirus and suffering from it in the community, but they are at the most severe end of the illness that coronavirus can create, and that causes a risk to them and to the circumstances in which they find themselves, and which, in any other circumstances, would be a matter of huge celebration to them.

So, I repeat exactly the appeal that Delyth Jewell has made, Llywydd: if there are women in Wales who have not been vaccinated and are being out off being vaccinated because of some of the things that they read on social media about vaccination, please look at what the real facts will tell you, and the chief medical officer has set those out absolutely clearly here in Wales. You are far better off, far safer by getting vaccination, and in Wales we would absolutely urge you to do so.