1. Statement by the First Minister: Update on COVID-19

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:56 pm on 22 December 2021.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 2:56, 22 December 2021

I just wanted to pick up on what you said earlier about the scale of the infection rate and the strain it's going to be putting on public services just because of sickness absences. I've managed to get around all the care homes in Cardiff Central just to thank them for the fantastic dedication they have to looking after our vulnerable citizens and also to highlight the role they're playing in ensuring that those who no longer need to be in hospital have somewhere safe to convalesce and recover and be looked after by caring people. And I've also had conversations with front-line health workers who happen to live in my constituency, and the level of dedication that they continue to display despite working innumerable hours trying to cope with the increased demand for health services, but still wanting to somehow get involved in the latest vaccination booster programme to play their part—. So, in that context, how do we get the public to understand that the UK Government is continuing to block the efforts of the World Health Organization to waive the copyrights on all these vaccines that have proved so successful in protecting our lives in the rich countries, so that, in the words of Gordon Brown, no-one is protected unless everyone is protected? As we live in a global village, unless we do this—unless we make 2022 the year of global vaccination—we are simply going to move from one crisis to another. How long can we go on expecting our front-line health and social care workers to go on going the extra mile? We simply can't, and therefore we have to do what is necessary to resolve this pandemic by getting everybody vaccinated before some new variant comes along that, simply, the vaccination programme won't cover us for.