Booster vaccine uptake figures revealed
THE number of people who have received the Covid-19 booster vaccine has been revealed for the first time by Public Health Wales.
As part of the NHS trust’s daily coronavirus update yesterday, it was revealed that 322,591 people have had the booster jab in Wales to date.
More than half of healthcare workers (59.3%) and care home residents (56%), and close to half of care home workers (47.9%) and people aged 80 and older (44.3%), have had it since the rollout began last month.
The first booster jab in Wales was given to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board orthopaedic nurse Ewa Syczuk, 50, at a clinic in St Asaph, Denbighshire.
Nearly 1.8 million people in Wales are due to receive a Covid booster jab in Wales as part of the Welsh Government’s rollout to vulnerable groups and the over-50s.
On Thursday, Health Minister Eluned Morgan said the nation was on target to offer all of the third jabs by the end of this year, as well as offer all 12 to 15-year-olds a jab by the end of October.
“We’re on target in terms of what we set out in our vaccination plan. About 30-35% of 12 to 15-year-old will have already been vaccinated and we’re hoping that many more will now take up that opportunity during the half-term holidays,” she said.
“It’s more difficult to vaccinate children because it’s important to make sure that there are facilities to explain to them what’s going on; that there’s support for them. It’s a slightly different offer when compared to an older age group, so that’s why is slightly slower than the booster vaccine, but we are on target as we predicted.”
With coronavirus infection rates rising rapidly across Wales, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said booster jabs are vital in further protecting the population.
The latest seven-day infection rate across Wales based on the cases for every 100,000 people (seven days up to October 17) now stands at 681.9 – the highest rate since the pandemic began.
However, while hospital admissions for Covid are increasing, the rise has been far more gradual than in previous peaks in the first and second waves thanks to the vaccine rollout.
Baroness Morgan added that it was highly unlikely that elective appointments and procedures would be routinely cancelled across the entire NHS like 18 months ago despite the fact Covid infection rates are soaring.
“We won’t see operations stop altogether, and of course we’ll be making sure that cancer support is there, we’ll be making sure that mental health support is there, come what may. But we will have to monitor the situation and flex depending on how great those pressures come,” she added.
“There is also a responsibility on the public to make sure that they take up the the Covid booster and flu jabs.
“At the moment the rates [of Covid] are really high in Wales, and we’re hoping the half-term holiday will
bring a degree of relief because at the moment, many of the cases are among our younger, school-aged children.”
The coronavirus booster vaccine dose is designed to improve the protection people have received from getting the first two doses of the vaccine, and combat any waning efficiency.
But to be effective the booster has to be offered at least six months after the second dose. It means anyone who had their second jab in May won’t be eligible for a booster until November. Anyone whose second jab was in June won’t be offered a booster until December.
In September, the UK Government’s scientific advisers recommended that everyone over 50 should be offered a third dose of a Covid vaccine, along with frontline medical staff and younger adults with some underlying health conditions.
At the time, ministers called the programme the “last piece of the jigsaw” as the country transitions to living with the virus. Some, though, remain concerned that the speed of the rollout has not been fast enough to best protect the most vulnerable.
THE overall coronavirus infection rate in Wales is now the highest it has ever been.
Since the start of the pandemic the seven-day rate has never gone beyond 652 cases per 100,000 population.
But yesterday Public Health Wales announced it had reached 681.9 for the week between October 11 and 17.
The virus has been rampant across many Welsh communities this month, with two local authorities – Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen – now recording infection rates beyond 1,000 cases per 100,000.
Health Minister Eluned Morgan has stressed these booming figures are being driven largely by schoolaged children, most of whom have not had a vaccine. Just under half of the cases currently being diagnosed in Wales are being found in those aged 0-19.
But we must not be mistaken for thinking it’s only children who are returning positive tests. Thousands of Covid cases are still being recorded every week in the adult population too.
What needs to be carefully assessed – arguably even more so than the infection rates themselves – is the number of people winding up in hospital severely ill with the virus.
Currently there are in excess of 730 patients in both general/acute beds and in intensive care. Reassuringly, that’s less than half the peak of the second wave.
But what must be factored into the equation now is the soaring numbers of people in hospital for non-Covid reasons – way above anything we’ve seen since the start of the pandemic.
The lack of available beds (which can be staffed) is one of the main reasons why our NHS has a real crisis on its hands. It’s why people are stuck in ambulances for unacceptably long periods of time, it’s why A&E is so rammed with patients needing to be transferred onto wards, and it’s a factor in why operations are delayed or cancelled.
Only a marginal increase in Covid – and flu – admissions in the coming weeks could spell disaster for our health service. To its credit the Welsh Government is trying to do something to free up beds, including investing £40m in social care in an attempt to discharge people more quickly and keep them at home for longer.
But even the health minister has admitted that the benefits of this extra funding are unlikely to be felt until the spring when, she hopes, performance figures will start to improve.