Welsh ministers accused of holding back on rollout

DOCTORS criticised the Welsh government last night after it said there was no point in rushing to administer jabs.

The Labour-led administration has faced criticism for vaccinating a smaller proportion of its population than other home nations. But First Minister Mark Drakeford said rushing to use supplies would leave vaccinators ‘standing around with nothing to do’.

As of Saturday, 4 per cent of the population in Wales had been vaccinated, compared with 4.1 per cent in Scotland, 5.9 per cent in England and 7.4 per cent in Northern Ireland. Mr Drakeford dismissed the ‘very marginal differences’, adding: ‘The sensible thing to do is to use the vaccine you’ve got over the period that you’ve got it for.

‘It will be logistically very damaging to try to use all of that in the first week and then to have all our vaccinators standing around with nothing to do for another month,’ he told the Radio 4’s Today programme.

Mr Drakeford insisted Wales was ‘on track’ to vaccinate the top four priority groups by the middle of February. A Welsh Government spokesman later attempted to clarify his position, saying the policy had been adopted in order not to waste the Pfizer vaccine, which needs storage at minus 70C. ‘There are only two centres in Wales where we can keep them at this temperature,’ he said. ‘Every dose wasted is a vaccine which cannot be given to someone in Wales.’

The British Medical Association said it was ‘extremely concerned’ that the Welsh Government was spacing out doses and Welsh Tory leader Paul Davies said he was ‘flabbergasted’ by Mr Drakeford’s explanation. ‘This is a matter of life and death,’ he said.

Mr Drakeford later denied vaccinations were being delayed. ‘Nobody is holding back vaccines,’ he said. ‘All our health boards are receiving doses of Pfizer as quickly as they can use it.’