‘Astonishing efforts’ led Wales to hit jabs target – Drakeford

WALES’ First Minister has insisted the country is the first in the UK to offer coronavirus vaccines to everyone in the top four priority groups.

Mark Drakeford paid tribute to the “astonishing efforts” of those behind the vaccination programme in Wales for achieving the target yesterday.

It comes as Public Health Wales said a total of 715,944 first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine had now been given, an increase of 31,847 from the previous day, while 4,010 second doses have also been given, an increase of 215.

Yesterday, the Welsh Government said it had offered jabs to all residents and staff in adult care homes, frontline health and social care workers, people aged 70 and over, and clinically vulnerable individuals, and thus had fulfilled its goal of doing so by mid-February.

Mr Drakeford was later asked at the Welsh Government’s press briefing why he had by then yet to frame the achievement as Wales reaching the target before the other UK nations.

Mr Drakeford said: “I’m just anxious to avoid the narrative that it is somehow a competition between UK nations.

“I’ve said from the very beginning, the contest is between the injection and the infection. Our race is with coronavirus.

“We are the first nation in the UK to have reached this milestone, other nations will follow in the next couple of days. We’re not in competition with one another. Every part of the UK is working as hard as it can to get to these milestones.”

But he appeared to suggest the target may only actually be reached after yesterday, saying: “Because of the astonishing efforts that have been made... we’re able to say today we will have reached that milestone by the end of the day and into the very beginning of the weekend.”

Mr Drakeford responded to claims that some people who were due a vaccine had in fact not yet been contacted for an appointment by saying the NHS was “re-checking” whether those in priority groups had not missed their slots.

He said: “The NHS in every part of Wales is spending this week checking and re-checking whether there are any people who have missed [an appointment].

“There may be a whole range of reasons why that could have happened, and I can’t really speculate on them. But anybody who knows of somebody who may have missed out, it is not too late at all, we will make sure that those people have an appointment. They will get it as fast as possible.”

The Welsh Conservatives’ leader in the Senedd, Andrew RT Davies, described Mr Drakeford’s announcement as a “great news day”, but said it was “worrying” that there were people in the top four priority groups complaining that they have yet to receive an appointment for a jab.

He said: “We don’t want to see these public pronouncements start to unravel and as such Labour ministers should provide some swift clarification.”

But a Welsh Government spokesman said they were “confident” that “every single person that wants a jab” in the top four priority groups would have one by the end of the weekend.

They said government data indicated they could reach this target by the end of yesterday, but there may be “mopping up” over the weekend to arrange appointments for those from the priority groups who had missed or previously refused a slot.

The spokesman said: “There will be appointments going out over the weekend because there will have been mopping up.

“We’re contacting proactively the people who may have changed their minds or may have been ill or may have, for some reason, not been able to take up the appointment, just so we can get them in over the weekend and give them the jab.”

On Wednesday, Wales became the first UK nation to vaccinate more than 20% of its population, and one of the first countries in the world to do so, but Mr Drakeford has confirmed a planned reduction in vaccine supply is expected in the next few weeks.

Mr Drakeford also said people over the age of 65 in Wales have already begun to be contacted and offered a Covid-19 vaccination.

Asked when they could expect to receive a letter, Mr Drakeford told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Well, people in Wales have had them already.

“Because we will have completed the first four groups by this weekend, then, as from Monday, people in the next five groups – that’s people aged over 50 – will already be booked in for their appointments next week.

“So I know that people in those groups will have already been contacted this week by practices, by mass vaccination centres, and those people will be getting their vaccine from Monday onwards.”

Last night the UK Government said it is set to hit its UK-wide target of offering a Covid-19 vaccine to people most at risk by Monday.

Elsewhere, the reproduction number, or R value, of coronavirus has fallen below 1.0 for the first time since July and is now estimated to be between 0.7 and 0.9 across the UK.

It comes as Government data up to February 11 shows that 14,012,224 people in the UK have now received a first dose of the vaccine.

NHS England said the top four priority groups in England – people aged 70 and over, care home residents and staff, health and care workers and clinically extremely vulnerable patients – “have now been offered the opportunity to be vaccinated”.

In a sign that lockdown restrictions are having an impact and the epidemic is shrinking, scientists advising the Government gave their most optimistic outlook for the R number since cases fell last summer.