North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has praised improvements to the Covid vaccine rollout in Wales, but is concerned that there is still a gap between Wales and the rest of the UK when it comes to administering the second dose of the vaccine.
Latest figures show 1 in every 909 people have now received both doses of the vaccine in Wales, compared with 1 in every 454 people in Scotland, 1 in every 119 people in England and 1 in every 68 people in Northern Ireland.
Responding to the Health Minister’s Statement on Vaccinations during yesterday’s virtual meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood challenged him on the figures.
He also questioned him over vaccinations for the clinically extremely vulnerable group, such as people with cystic fibrosis.
He said:
“Many then potential vaccinators, including nurses and GPs, contacted me at the beginning of the roll-out, frustrated at the slow start then, but they deserve huge praise for the magnificent way they have risen to the challenge since.
“You referred to second vaccines. I think the latest figures in Wales are one in every 909 people; in England it's one in every 119 people. So, there's still a gap, but I can recognise that the figure in Wales has still improved significantly. How will you ensure that that continued roll-out of the second vaccine programme focuses on what you identify as population needs, and doesn't disadvantage the roll-out of the first vaccine programme where it's most needed?
“And finally, given that people classed as clinically extremely vulnerable are shielding, will you provide or are you able to provide an update on what percentage of the clinically extremely vulnerable group, such as people with cystic fibrosis, have now received their first coronavirus vaccination in Wales?”
In his response, the Health Minister said the comparisons with England are “misleading” and that Wales can “expect to see a much greater number of second doses taking place in the few weeks ahead.”
With regard to vaccination figures for the clinically extremely vulnerable, the Health Minister said “there is work in train that Public Health Wales is doing to provide a useful figure on the clinically extremely vulnerable or the former shielded group of people,” but stressed that “I don't think we're going to be able to break them down into condition-specific areas.”
He added: “Whilst we have about 130,000 people in Wales who are on that clinically extremely vulnerable group, many of those are covered in some of the other areas -some of them will be care homes residents, some of them will be people over the age of 80, 70 or 75. So, we need to make sure that we're not double counting them.”