I very much welcome this debate today as part of Wales and the Senedd recognising that we're part of the worldwide community, and that the worldwide community faces a tremendous challenge in dealing with the pandemic. COVID-19 doesn't recognise any borders between countries. It's a collective experience that the world is, sadly, going through at the moment, and it does require a united, collective response. So, I think it's very important that we're having this debate today. We've shown a great deal of international responsibility and engagement through, for example, our programme for Africa, and many aspects of that are health related. We've provided health clinics in countries in sub-Saharan Africa; we've had lots of exchanges between doctors, nurses and other health professionals. It's been wonderful to see that happening, and it's very beneficial, I believe, to both ourselves and the other countries concerned.

The pandemic is, obviously, an important challenge to those health systems that we've helped to develop and support, and, obviously, a crucial part of dealing with the pandemic is the vaccine. We know how important and beneficial it has been for Wales and the UK and other countries where vaccination is being rolled out effectively and extensively, but, sadly, that isn't the position in many countries with less developed health systems and less strong and robust economies. So, as part of our international obligations, through the programme for Africa and otherwise, I do believe Wales should play a part in making the case and helping those other countries have effective vaccination programmes.

In my area, Dirprwy Lywydd, we have Love Zimbabwe, which is a great organisation, building links between Wales and Zimbabwe. Visits have taken place during the pandemic—last summer, for example. I'm told by Love Zimbabwe that there are many issues, as you would expect, in terms of dealing effectively with the pandemic in Zimbabwe. Lateral flow tests, for example, cost around £25 to carry out, and many people, obviously, are not able to afford that, and this does make it difficult to assess the number of cases and the extent of COVID-19 in that country, which is, obviously, very problematic in terms of planning an adequate response from the health system. And also, although vaccination is taking place, the vast majority of the 15 million population have not been vaccinated, and the vaccine that is being used is the Chinese vaccine, which is not recognised by the UK Government. So, that creates problems, because, although Zimbabwe is no longer on the red list of UK Government countries in terms of COVID, the fact that that Chinese vaccine is being used means that there are problems with quarantine and pre-departure tests for travel from Zimbabwe to the UK. That has many implications for the Zimbabwe population and, of course, the way that we engage with them through Love Zimbabwe and other groups and organisations. 

So, I'm very pleased that this debate is taking place today so that we can recognise and understand these issues. I very much hope that we do now reinvigorate our voice in the campaign to ensure effective vaccination in countries all over the world, and do what we can more directly in terms of our programme for Africa, and our other efforts, to make sure that we fulfil our responsibility as part of that prosperous and stable world, and understand how lucky we are to be in that position here in Wales.