More than half of 18-29s in Wales receive first dose of Covid vaccine
WALES has now reached the impressive milestone of vaccinating more than half of people aged between 18 and 29 against coronavirus.
Latest figures from Public Health Wales (PHW), published yesterday, revealed that 238,787 people in the youngest adult age category have had their first dose, which equates to 50.7%.
Some health boards, including Cardiff and Vale UHB, have confirmed that they have offered vaccine appointments to its entire adult population. It means all over-18s in the region will have been offered a first dose by Sunday, May 30, at the latest.
In contrast, in England people aged over 30 can book in for their first jabs from Saturday, with text message invitations being sent out this week. Similarly, people aged 30 and over are eligible for jabs in Scotland while in Northern Ireland it’s anyone aged over 25.
The Welsh Government set a target of offering a vaccine to all adults in Wales by the end of July.
Despite the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advising that the Astrazeneca vaccine should no longer be offered to those under 40 due to reported blood clots, it doesn’t appear to have hampered the pace of the rollout here.
Speaking on Monday, Wales’ new minister for health and social services, Eluned Morgan, said: “Our phenomenal vaccination programme is delivering hope and a pathway out of the pandemic.
“Well over two million people have had their first dose and we reached the major milestone of one million second doses this weekend. Every single vaccination is a small victory against the virus.”
Current figures show that 1,037,749 adults in Wales have now received two doses of the vaccine, while 2,112,647 have received their first dose. Uptake of the first vaccine dose by priority group (according to PHW): ■ Care home (97.9%) ■ Care (91.5%) ■ 80 years and older: 165,553 (95.7%) ■ Healthcare workers: 135,785 (95.2%) ■ Social care workers: 45,461 (no percentage available) ■ 75-79 years: 128,061 (96.5%) ■ 70-74 years: 175,630 (95.8%) ■ Clinically extremely vulnerable 16-69 years: 76,073 (93.6%) ■ 65-69 years: 170,014 (94.3%) ■ Clinical risk groups 16-64 years: 307,523 (86.7%) ■ 60-64 years: 188,936 (91.8%) ■ 55-59 years: 209,560 (89.6%) ■ 50-54 years: 199,761 (87.5%) ■ 40-49 years: 319,650 (81.3%) ■ 30-39 years: 284,493 (67.3%) ■ 18-29 years: 238,787 (50.7%) Uptake of the second vaccine dose by priority group (according to PHW): ■ Care home (92.2%) ■ Care (81.8%) ■ 80 years and older: 159,464 (92.2%) ■ Healthcare workers: 122,976 (86.2%) ■ Social care workers: 40,139 (no percentage available) ■ 75-79 years: 124,417 (93.7%) ■ 70-74 years: 170,936 (93.2%) ■ Clinically extremely vulnerable 16-69 years: 69,661 (85.7%) ■ 65-69 years: 155,331 (86.1%) ■ Clinical risk groups 16-64 years: 121,228 (34.2%) ■ 60-64 years: 96,140 (46.7%) ■ 55-59 (31.3%) ■ 50-54 (25.4%) ■ 40-49 years: 76,218 (19.4%) home home years: 73,231 years: residents: workers: residents: workers: 58,022 14,744 34,862 13,891 31,154 ■ 30-39 years: 60,174 (14.2%) ■ 18-29 years: 47,897 (10.2%)
Dr Anthony Hill, a public health specialist and educator, said Wales’ success at vaccinating through the age groups at pace was “multifaceted”.
He said: “In all areas the Welsh Government and the Welsh NHS, working with their delivery partners, have performed impressively. Mobilising an immunisation programme of this scale will certainly be unique in many of our lifetimes and the achievement is all the more incredible against the backdrop of the most difficult time in the NHS’ history.
“Despite these challenges, NHS Wales has built an infrastructure to deliver its mass vaccination programme from scratch and will very soon have vaccinated the entire adult population of the country. And even more impressively all of this appears to have been achieved ahead of schedule.
“Wales has performed well in all the areas that matter – logistics, leadership, communication and audience mapping – but there are other significant strings to the nation’s bow that has given Wales an edge in the race to safeguard it citizens.
“Firstly, we should not underestimate Wales’ position in the UK when analysing its performance. Unlike other singular nations, this union and fournation approach has allowed a country of just 3.1 million people, that is not an economic superpower, access to a plentiful supply of vaccines thanks to the combined purchasing power, shared expertise and early decision making of the joint administrations. “Another major weapon in the Welsh arsenal is the Welsh Immunisation System, the new digital system designed by Digital Health and Care Wales that is supporting vaccine rollout across the country. The bespoke system has been designed with Welsh technology and expertise, specifically for the needs of people in Wales. “It uses information on patient demographics, occupation groups and agreed priority levels for receiving the vaccination, automating the scheduling of appointments for patients in one integrated system; creating appointment slots, sending out appointment letters and recording details about each vaccine administered. It is also integrated with the GP record so vaccinators can check allergies and past immunisations ensuring safety in the programme. “Such an administratively slick universal healthcare programme is in line with similar systems in other highly vaccinated nations like Israel, where records are centralised and digitised effectively, making operations far more efficient than in nations where similar processes are at best fragmented, and at worst, non-existent.” Dr Hill added that population attitude was another key driver of success in Wales. “Anti-vax sentiment is thankfully low here.”
Our phenomenal vaccination programme is delivering hope and a pathway out of the pandemic Health and social services minister, Eluned Morgan