Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:50 pm on 11 January 2022.
Thank you for your statement this afternoon, Minister, and for addressing members of the health committee earlier today, at lunchtime—and a happy new year, of course. Thankfully, of course, according to many experts, we're in a transition from a pandemic to an endemic. While we learn to live with this disease, we must redouble efforts to protect the most vulnerable, those living in our care homes. Thankfully, the vaccines appear to be holding their own against the omicron variant, at least when it comes to hospitalisations and deaths. Minister, thanks to an amazing job by all involved in the vaccine roll-out, from the UK and Welsh Governments to the army of volunteers at our mass vax centres, over half the UK population have been boosted to date. However, we still have a large percentage of care home staff yet to be boosted—as many as one in four. We also have one out of every 10 care home residents yet to receive their third jab. Minister, when will all care home staff and residents be boosted, and will you make this a top priority? And what additional measures are you proposing to protect care home residents, going forwards? Finally, Minister, as well as vaccines, our care home staff need additional protections because they can't work from home. Will you ensure that all care home staff are provided with the best possible PPE, such as FFP3 masks? Thank you.