All over-50’s offered jab by mid-March

The Welsh Government has pledged to offer a Covid-19 vaccine to everyone aged over 50 as well as all ‘at risk’ people “by spring” (March 19).

Health Minister Vaughan Gething said that 700,000 people would be vaccinated by mid-February, and, depending on supply, every adult in Wales will have been offered a jab by the end of summer.

At today’s press conference, Mr Gething said the government aimed to vaccinate:

• all Welsh Ambulance Service staff by January 18
• all those living and working in care homes by the end of January
• the rest of the top four priority groups - front-line health and social care staff, everyone over 70 and people who are extremely clinically vulnerable - by mid-February
• everyone over 50 and those at greater risk because they have an underlying health condition by the spring
• all eligible adults by the autumn

The first 'by spring phase will see a total of approximately 1.6 million people vaccinated but, Mr Gething has since added in a written statement that “the milestones are predicted on sufficient supplies of vaccines being available”.

“Whilst we have received assurances from the UK Government that supplies will be forthcoming, ultimately, this is a matter outside of the Welsh Government’s control,” he said.

The latest figures show 86,000 doses had been administered by 10pm last night.

A total of 327,000 doses - 280,000 of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 47,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab - have now been delivered to the Welsh NHS.

Mr Gething said: “Delivering this vaccination programme to the people in Wales is a huge task but an enormous amount of work is going on to make it a success.

“We are making good progress with thousands more people being vaccinated every day.”

Both Welshpool and Montgomery medical practices hope to launch their vaccination programmes in the week commencing January 25, and according to the plan, the number of GPs' surgeries delivering vaccines will reach more than 250 by the end of January.

At the press conference Mr Gething defended the UK-wide decision to increase the gap between giving the two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. He said it would "avoid more deaths".

“Each of the vaccines provide a high level of protection against harm from coronavirus. That's really good news for all of us," he added.