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Health Minister Vaughan Gething has said that the launch of the vaccine will be accelerated in Wales this week while leading the Welsh Government’s coronavirus briefing.
Gething said that supplies of the Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccine in Wales had increased “markedly” and that significantly more doses of the Pfizer vaccine, some 60,000, would be distributed this week through mass vaccination centers in Wales.
He said: “This week, the vaccination program will move forward again.
“Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccine supplies have increased dramatically; we expect to receive almost double the amount of vaccine this week than in the first fortnight.
“This means that more people over 80 years of age and more people who live and work in nursing homes will be vaccinated in the GP’s offices and by community nurses working in the 14 mobile units.
“We are vaccinating nearly 1,000 nursing home residents every day.
“This week we will provide another 60,000 Pfizer vaccines for use in mass vaccination centers, almost double the number available last week.
It comes as Wales continues to lag behind the rest of the UK in delivering coronavirus vaccines.
As of January 18, Wales had administered the first doses of vaccine to 5.1% of its population. This compared to 7% of the population in Northern Ireland, 6.55% in England and 5.2% in Scotland.
At the end of last week, Gething acknowledged that Wales was lagging “slightly” behind, but said that “we are making real progress” and that “the gaps are relatively small”.
Gething said the reason for the delay was “due to the problems we had in deploying enough Pfizer vaccine,” which must be stored at very low temperatures. He added: “I think those logistical challenges are largely behind us.
He said there was a “really rapid increase” in the number of vaccinations looming thanks to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. You can read more about it here.
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In plenary on Tuesday, Gething said he expected seven out of 10 nursing home residents and staff and seven out of 10 over 80s in Wales to be protected with their first shot by the end of this week, and that by mid- February Wales “should be in the same place as other UK nations.”
But the Welsh government has come under fire for thousands of doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine it has received that have yet to be used.
The Prime Minister said additional supplies will not be received until late January or early February, so existing doses were to be extended for six weeks to avoid “vaccinators being left with nothing to do for another month.”
Gething has since asserted that the Welsh government’s strategy is not the same as withholding vaccines, saying on Tuesday: “As long as the supply arrives, we will deliver those vaccines.”
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