 Rhaiddiw, roeddwn i'n meddwl i'r eisteddfaith o'r ddafodol i'r cyflawn i'r cyflosio'r cyflosio cyfeirio i'r ddafodol i'r ddweud o'r cyflawn i'r gwaith cyflosio a chyflosio'r ddweud o'r cyflosio'r cyflosio'r cyflosio. Mae'r cwmpasol i'r ddafodol yn cael ei gael o'r ffordd yn ddechrau. Mi ddweud, dwi'n maslygu o'r 1 ffgau miliwn cyflosio. Galloddod, lle mae'r ffordd o unedol ar gyfer yw'r cymdeithas gyda Wales, y cyfwyr yma yn cael 600,000 oes yn cyflawni'r cyfrifol yma. Mae'r ffordd yn ymgyrchio effeithio a'i gwirio ag ydych yn ysgrifes. Rwy'n meddwl i'r ffryd yn ymwybod i'r targetynau ar gyfer yw'r cyfrifol yma yn y gwael yma yma'r cyfrifol yma'r cyfrifol yma'r cyfrifol. We now have 43 mass vaccination centres operating across Wales, more than 400 GP-led clinics providing vaccines, and there are clinics taking place in 38 hospitals across Wales. You can see from this slide that is just coming up just quite how quickly our vaccination programme in Wales has accelerated. On Friday and Saturday, our incredible teams vaccinated the equivalent of 1% of the population of Wales on each day. We've now vaccinated a larger proportion of the total population than any other part of the UK. But as we have regularly said, this isn't a race between the four nations, not a race between the governments, it's a race against the virus. This is a phenomenal effort, and as we know, every vaccine delivered is another small victory against the virus. Tomorrow, I'll be joining a round-table discussion about COVID vaccination with community and faith leaders. This is part of a wider ongoing piece of work to answer people's questions and to counter some of the misinformation about the vaccine, which is common among some groups and communities. We're closely monitoring the vaccine uptake to make sure that there are no barriers to take up. I want to be clear to everyone. The vaccine does not contain pork products or traces of fetal matter that is safe for all ethnic minority and faith communities. Having the vaccine will help to boost immunity against this awful virus, and it will help all of us to limit the spread within all of our communities. We are considering whether we need to make it easier for people to access the vaccine by using mosques and other places of worship as clinics, especially in predominantly Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, which as we know, have been hit so hard by coronavirus. I want to turn now to the wider public health situation. Overall, we continue to see cases of coronavirus fall. Today's figures show that there are around 115 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people in Wales, but this does vary across Wales. In Wrexham, rates are still above 220 cases per 100,000, although this is falling. In Kerrodygan, the rate has risen slightly over the last seven days, but is standing today at 56 cases per 100,000 people. The positivity rate, that is the percentage of tests which return a positive result every day, is also falling. That now stands at just below 10%. Now these figures are still high, but a lot lower than the very high rates we were seeing just before Christmas. When we had overall rates of more than 650 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people and a positivity rate of more than 25%. The R number is below 1 in Wales. The most recent estimate from SAGE is that R is between 0.7 and 0.9 in Wales. We know it takes a while to see the impact of what's happening in the community in our NHS, but there is some good news here too. There are encouraging signs that the number of people needing hospital treatment for coronavirus is starting to fall. The number of people with confirmed coronavirus in our hospitals is at the lowest number since 8 November, and we've also seen a reduction in the number of people with coronavirus who need intensive care. All of this is as a result of everything that you have done over the last couple of months. I know that lockdown isn't easy for any of us, whether your parents who are juggling work and homeschooling. I know that businesses would much rather be trading and that business owners and workers are worried about the future. But because you're staying at home and following the rules, doing the right thing, cases of coronavirus have now fallen back from the very high levels that we saw before Christmas. You're staying at home and you are saving lives. It's really important that we all keep going and continue to drive infection rates down even further. Before I take questions, I do want to say a few words about cancer services. Our NHS has worked really hard to maintain cancer care throughout the pandemic. Investigations and treatments are continuing. As we emerge from the peak of the second wave, we're looking at the long-term recovery of cancer services. I'll be meeting leads from all health boards this week to discuss this in more detail. In the meantime, I urge anyone who is worried or has symptoms to contact their GP. If you've been invited for cancer screening, please go. And if you have ongoing treatment, please continue to attend your appointments as normal. Thank you, all of you, for your hard work and effort over these last couple of months. It's thanks to that that we can look forward to a time when we will soon be living with fewer restrictions on our daily lives. The new variant strains, which have been discovered recently, are of course worrying. Yet another unwanted twist in this pandemic. But we do have a world-class genomic sequencing system in place here in Wales to help us detect these. However, we also do need strong border controls and quarantine arrangements to help stop them entering the UK in the first place. Whether our cases, we will do everything we can to identify them, to investigate and to prevent their further spread. That is what we're doing in the two cases of the South African variant in Conway and Neath Patalbot, which have no apparent links to international travel. We all need to carry on taking steps to protect ourselves and each other. That means keeping our distance from others, washing our hands regularly, wearing a face covering where we are in indoor public spaces and ensuring good ventilation indoors. And of course staying home as soon as we have symptoms and arranging to get a test. Thank you for your ongoing help and support to help keep Wales safe. I will take questions for journalists now and as always the answers will be broadcast live on our social media channels. The first question today is Dan Davison BBC Wales. Thanks Minister. Boris Johnson said he was deeply sorry when the UK recorded 100,000 deaths and that his government did everything it could. Today Public Health Wales has recorded more than 5,000 deaths. Does the Welsh Government apologise for the lives lost in Wales? I'm deeply sorry for every single life that's been lost, every family who's been affected. And right from the outset of this pandemic we made a point of recognising that these aren't just numbers, these are people who are loved and valued and leave others behind. Now I don't think you could ever put a figure and say what is a good or a bad figure from the pandemic. But what I do want to make clear is the reason why we have taken all of the extraordinary measures we have is to reduce the number of people coming to harm. And despite all of that we know that more than 5,000 people have lost their lives. I'm afraid we can be terribly confident that without the measures that we've all taken together more people would have come to harm and more families would be grieving the loss of a loved one. That's why it's so important we all stick with what we're doing to help drive down rates even further. And it's also important why within the government and our health service we continue to learn and to understand the slightly changing picture to increase our knowledge to help us to make the choices that we need to make to help keep everyone at home safe. Thanks. Given the findings from South Africa and the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine being less effective at preventing mild illness, what changes if any does the Welsh Government think may need making to the vaccination programme? How likely is it that people will need an annual vaccine jab for example and could that even involve a third or a booster jab at the end of this year? This is one of those challenges about our knowledge-based chain. I think there are a couple of important things to set out. The first is that the study in South Africa is a relatively small study and the findings you refer to actually refer to younger people but also that's about the response to mild to moderate impacts of coronavirus. There isn't any evidence yet that it has an impact on the South African strain and the protection that that vaccine offers for people against hospitalisation or indeed mortality. So there aren't findings that undermine the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine when it comes to protecting people from hospitalisation and death. It's also worth reading, not just that, but returning of course at the dominant strain of coronavirus in Wales today and indeed across the UK is the Kent strain of coronavirus and the AstraZeneca vaccine is highly effective against that particular strain of the virus. So we'll continue to learn and we'll continue to understand what more we need to do to protect people. Now we said from some time out that the virus will mutate. You've heard Chris Jones on a platform here explain that several times over and indeed Robert Orford too, our Chief Scientific Advisor on Health and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer respectively. So we know we're going to need to reconsider what we do at various points in time. That may mean that in the future we need to have booster programmes or an annual programme as we do with flu every year but we don't know that for certain yet. That's why it's so important to keep our foot on the accelerator and keep going with the vaccination programme to provide the maximum amount of protection as quickly as possible as our amazing vaccination teams have done just that right across Wales for weeks now and that's why we're in the position we are relative to other UK nations. We'll need to see more of that to reach our mid for every milestone and then to continue to work through all of the other priority groups and the rest of the adult population. So we still have an altar marathon ahead of us but I believe we can take comfort in the effectiveness of the vaccines we still have available to us against the dominant strains of the virus but the continuing pace of our vaccination programme and urge everyone, when your time comes, be ready and make sure you take the vaccine. Thank you Dan, I've now got James Crichton-Smith from ITV Wales. Thank you Minister. As Wales passes that 5,000 death milestone and of course now has more deaths than even China do you feel you've done everything you could have done to keep that number as low as possible? Well I don't know that we really can compare our figures in the same way that you suggest with China we're not entirely sure about the efficacy of or the effectiveness of all those death figures reports in other countries what we do know is that the UK's had more than 100,000 deaths we know that figure will rise we've had more than 5,000 deaths in Wales and I'm afraid that figure will rise further as well. I have said at regular points that one of the things that I found most difficult during the pandemic is the knowledge that the choices we make really can make the difference between whether people are alive or not and I've never tried to understate the importance of those choices or the impact not just on me but on our advisers and on the whole team of ministers for the choices that we make. So I feel real sorrow when every death is reported I do think we've done everything that we could have done at the time but that's not the same as saying that looking back we wouldn't want to do different things I think that's a really important part of the honesty that we need because we have learnt our knowledge has developed and it's important that we then use that to make different and hopefully better choices in the future so it isn't just about saying we've done everything we could in the past it's about being humble enough to recognise that we have better knowledge now and we can make even better choices in the future and that's why we ask the public to stick with this to stick with what we're all doing to keep each other safe our case rates are falling, our hospitalisation rates are falling our death rates will fall and our vaccination rates will rise to protect more and more of us and enable us to make different choices in the future Thank you Back at the beginning of this pandemic the Welsh Government was saying that the risk from Covid was low the Chief Medical Officer was saying that Wales was well prepared for these sorts of incidences and could see obviously what was happening in China could see what was happening in mainland Europe before it reached Wales Welsh Government was naive at best wasn't it in getting ready for this I think that's a significant mischaracterisation of what we said James with respect At the time there were different risks to the UK and to Wales from coronavirus at that point in time we never said that if coronavirus arrived on our shores in larger numbers then there wouldn't be harm caused far from it and you'll recall from very early on in the pandemic as our preparations changed as we published plans about what might happen then the reasonable worst case scenario talked about the potential for hundreds of thousands of deaths across the UK the reasonable worst case scenario at the outset talked about the potential for I believe 26,000 deaths in Wales and you'll recall the health committee meeting where I told health and social care committee members that things could reach the point where individual burial may no longer be possible now we haven't reached that scenario in reality but it does show how much worse this could have been we have always had to look at the evidence and as I said in answer to your first question we've always had to be prepared to change our decisions our knowledge has developed and moved on that's what we need to continue to do not just for the weeks and months ahead but for the years ahead as well because we can't be certain at all that we'll be able to eliminate coronavirus we may live with coronavirus as an endemic condition that we need to continually protect ourselves against the first part though is to do the right things in the here and now to keep people alive to make sure that case rates continue to fall to make sure vaccination rates continue to rise and we protect our people and learn the lessons for the choices we'll all need to make in the significant job of recovery that lies ahead of all of us thank you James next on our mail line-up today is Mark Smith from Wales Online thank you very much indeed Health Minister the consistent message from the Welsh Government throughout periods of lockdown has been to do the minimum rather than the maximum that the regulations allow we've all been told to work from home unless absolutely necessary as well does that also apply to Welsh Government ministers and could you explain exactly what work Lee Waters has been doing that's required him to travel between his first and second homes on a regular basis throughout this lockdown well Welsh Government ministers are doing the great majority of our work remotely I'm here today because I'm delivering this press conference I regularly work from home as you will see from the regular interviews I do with you and other media colleagues at various points around my home we do know though that I'm in a different position to other Welsh Government colleagues because my constituency is where I live and it's very close to where I'm speaking to you from today other members of the Senate, whether ministers or not have a different set of constituency and regional arrangements that they need to service so there are times where there will be a need for essential work travel and it's not unusual at all for Senedd members to have a home near to where the Senedd sits and indeed their constituency or region and as you know Mark because we've provided several answers to Wales online there are times where Senedd members will need to be in their constituency during the pandemic and that will necessitate essential travel there's no suggestion in the article that's been published any rules have been broken and I really think that this is a distraction but not actually something that tells us something that is essential to help keep people well here today in Wales and the challenges we have for the future the good news is that because the great majority of us are doing the right thing only travelling and going out for essential purposes or exercise permitted reasons that means we are seeing a significant fall in coronavirus rates despite the even more contagious Kent variant of the virus being the dominant strain of the virus here in Wales so all the steps we're all taking together really are making a difference OK, thank you very much indeed and secondly now that the testing positivity rates has fallen below 10% which was a key marker set by the Welsh Government to remove from an alert level 4 to a level 3 is there any further prospect of restrictions being eased here in Wales or have perhaps the new variants moved the goalposts so to speak on those alert levels well we've spoken a lot about the headroom we have available to us and how we'll start to ease out of the position we find ourselves in today with a significant number of restrictions placed on all of our day to day lives we made clear that schools would be our first priority to make use of that headroom that's why you've heard from both the First Minister, the Education Minister and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer over the last week or so about our plans to restart education for our youngest children so the foundation phase up to year 2 should be going back into our primary schools after half term and that's really good news for all of us whether you have children in school or not it shows from the positive perspective we're able to make a step forward in returning to unlocking some of those areas of activity we'll then understand the impact of what that means as there will be more mixing with children in school but it's actually the impact on adults and adult interactions that probably makes an even bigger difference so people around schools, in schools and what adults can do if they don't have young children in the home that they do need to care for so that's why the message about all of us continuing to do the right thing is so important and as we move forward, as we see further falls to see those falls sustained as we hope they will be even after schools open we can then take further steps too because there's quite a lot of children and young people who have missed out on a great deal throughout the last year or so including those who would be looking forward to achieving a qualification at the end of this academic year so there's lots for us to think about and do as we further unlock not just in the world of education but I hope we'll have further options in the future I won't forecast when those will be because we need to see the evidence before us good news on the falling rates of COVID cases but still, even with the good news in reducing hospital admissions we're actually still at about 123% of our critical care capacity today so the headroom we have is still limited that's why we'll take a measured, managed and cautious approach as we do, I hope, take further steps out of the extraordinary control measures we've had to introduce to keep well safe Thank you Mark, we've now got Dan Bevan at LBC Thank you Health Minister, good off The UK government's vaccine minister, Nadim Sahawi has said that he's got no plans to introduce vaccine passports saying it would be discriminatory is that something the Welsh government have power to introduce here if so, is it something that you're considering or if you don't, is it something that you're going to lobby for? I haven't checked the powers available to the Welsh government or the Senedd to see if we could introduce a vaccine passport but it isn't something we're considering in particular it might make great headlines for some people it's not very helpful in terms of where we are in the here and now driving down case which requires us to do the right thing together increasing our vaccination programme requires supply to continue flowing to Wales and our fantastic vaccination teams will then help to protect the public we can look forward to different times ahead in the future where other choices will be open to us but I just think a conversation today about vaccine passports is an illusion, an unhelpful distraction but it's going to be more important things that we can do and should do to help keep Wales safe Thank you, and I know you've talked about it a little bit in your opening statement but we'll just get the latest on the South African variants and with that in mind, how likely is it that a new strain of the virus could mutate that's immune to the current vaccines and potentially derail the vaccine rollout? Well Dan, as I've indicated or heard last week we had 13 cases we had three where we weren't certain of travel history that's now down to two, we're still investigating those cases public health Wales are undertaking that work with the individuals and their contacts and as we work through that we're looking to make sure those people get tested and supported to isolate and to do the right thing when we do have a further update about those cases we'll of course make sure that's available there's lots of public interest in this I understand but within the cases we're reporting those 13 cases are a very small number the dominant strain is still the highly contagious Kent variant making progress to drive down cases despite that variant now being dominant across Wales that doesn't mean that we're complacent about the South African variant we are still watching and looking very carefully at what's happening and we have further measures we may need to take and if we do as I said we'll be completely open about them on your question about how likely is it that there'll be a further strain that will undermine vaccine efficacy completely that's entirely speculative and I'm certainly not qualified to answer that speculative question Dan I think that what we know we know that the current vaccines we have available are highly effective and provide good protection for all of us that's why it's so important that we take up the opportunity to be vaccinated when our NHS comes calling be ready and please take up the vaccine you help protect yourself and people around you help to take pressure off our national health service you'll help us all to get to a position where other choices are available for us but scientists across the world including here in Wales and across the UK are continuing to look for those variants of concern as the virus continues to mutate and when we know more about different strains the challenges they provide will then have to respond to them but I just think that trying to speculate on an entirely different future is not something that it's helpful for me to do so with respect I'm not going to take up the opportunity to do so but encourage everyone to keep on doing the right thing because that is what is helping to keep Wales safe Thank you Dan and I've got Steve Bagnell from The Daily Post Thank you Health Minister We've heard conflicting reports over tourism in Wales possibly opening by Easter What's the latest on this? Is this a realistic possibility? Well these things are possible but as we say we'll work through each of our reviews every three weeks to understand the headroom we have available to understand our first priority being reopening, face-to-face learning for children and young people and we'll then work through to see what else is possible We'll have more choices though if we can be successful together and continue to drive down coronavirus case rates and continue to make sure there's room to ensure that our national health service is not overwhelmed So that's part of the point and the purpose of all of this is to make sure we're all doing the right thing because we'll all benefit from getting the end of this sooner rather than later but that means do the right thing and as I said that's about washing your hands regularly it's about keeping your distance when you're out wearing a face covering in public, good ventilation and please do get a test if you have symptoms and stay at home if you have symptoms we know that actually there are still lots of people who recognise symptoms but aren't necessarily getting regularly and promptly tested when that happens and that is a really effective thing to do for yourself but for everyone around in the community that you live in Thank you Minister As you've mentioned there are still areas in north Wales particularly within Wrexham and Flintshire that have much higher Covid levels than the Welsh average How much is this a concern and what else can be done to try and bring these areas in line with the decrease in other parts of Wales? Well of course it's a concern but you'll also see that there are falling rates of coronavirus in north east Wales and that's really good news for all of us again Now we can't really tell about what happens in terms of cross-border interaction but you'd have covered on a regular basis you'll be aware being a north Wales publication of the fact that you can walk across the border in their communities where the line between the two countries doesn't actually make much sense in terms of how people live their day to day lives but what we need to do is to concert on what each of us can do within our family, within our community, within our individual choices that's what's helping to drive down coronavirus rates the rules the government has put in place and the extraordinary measures we've had to take are only effective if people follow those rules and act within the guidance that is what's happening, that's why even with the highly infectious Kent strain of the virus we're seeing those case rates fall and it's giving us the headroom to open up face to face learning after half term for our youngest children so that's a measure for everyone in every part of the country whether you're in Anglesey, Ceredigion, Wrexham or here in Cardiff please do the right thing it'll help to protect all of us and yourselves and together we're all doing what we could and should do to help keep Wales safe Thank you Steve, I've now got Rob Taylor from Wrexham.com Good afternoon Minister the number of vaccines being issued to the over 80s and care home staff appears to have slowed in the last few days is there an issue with the take up of the final people in these categories and if so why and related to that the First Minister has spoken of a vaccine hesitancy for people in a younger age group is there any fresh insight on that now with deeper into this process? Okay, so on the take up of care home residents we've essentially practically completed our programme in care homes we're still mopping up the last few where we know we couldn't get in to vaccinate either the whole care home or people within those care homes so you'll see that rise but only on a very slow basis because we're literally dealing with much much smaller numbers it's also the case of course that not everyone will take up the vaccine but we're not going to force people to take the vaccine up but I think people will be really proud of the significant and very rapid protection we provided to our most vulnerable citizens and when it comes to vaccine hesitancy in younger people this is partly because of the significant misinformation that is being spread on a range of different forums social media in particular there are people who are worried about concerns on a range of things from fertility and there's absolutely zero evidence that vaccines affect male or female fertility but some people are concerned about this in different scare stories and it's why it's so important that we're responsible in what we say about the vaccine that we're responsible in how we report what happens politicians, members of the public and indeed of course members of the press as well so I do think though that as we see much greater levels of population protection I hope that we'll see more and more people doing the right thing for themselves and everyone else around them too so I'm looking forward to having my vaccine when the time comes and I'll certainly be making sure that I can have my appointment on time and I look forward to being protected I look forward to playing my partners in this role but in the individual responsibilities I have too Thank you and in today's Welsh Government published survey of public views on the coronavirus people are asked if they think Welsh Government are doing a good job to contain the spread of the virus those answering very good or good job is in recent weeks the lowest it's been since the survey started back in March why do you think that is and how do you act on that feedback? Well as you go through you understand that there'll be more people who will be concerned about how quickly we can move out and the environment has been much more competitive in the first sort of four to six months of the pandemic there was a large amount of agreement on what to do there were very similar measures taken across the UK there's been a bit of a parting of the ways and fraying of some of the messaging has come back I think much more effectively since just before Christmas and the way that the four nations worked together and that should mean that there is now more effectiveness in the joint messaging as well as the individual messaging as well and I think we'll start to see a pickup in that response I also know that to be fair at the start of the vaccination programme there were significant criticisms made of the Welsh Government at that time we had a very difficult few weeks with lots and lots of criticism now we're in a position where our vaccine programme was really going great guns very very quickly and effectively so the next time we look at survey evidence we may see a change but it's still the case of course Rob that our positivity ratings from the public about the job we're doing are very high, extraordinarily high in a competitive democracy only months away from an election but the election coming the opportunity to see different perspectives on this will all mean of course that people will have slightly different views on what the government is doing the right thing to keep people safe, alive and well more importantly than that it's important that every one of us in our own lives does the right thing to keep ourselves and each other safe thank you Rob, we've now got Tom Moody from the South Wales Argus good afternoon Minister we've heard from the family of a 95 year old woman from Cwm Carn who's currently house bound and was unable to attend her vaccination appointment there will be many people around Wales in this same situation who are reliant on others who may not themselves have been vaccinated yet visiting them and caring for them can you offer an update on what's been done to ensure these people aren't being left behind in the vaccination process? I want to reiterate again the NHS is not going to leave people behind we know that there are a relatively small number of people who are effectively house bound and I think I addressed this last week in my statement in the Senate as well but that's why we do have mobile teams we've got a range of particular teams that are going and not just care homes about house bound individuals too some GPs are also undertaking home visits to deliver the vaccine as well so we know that for some people being house bound means they can't get out to a local centre or a mass vaccination centre that's what we've built in from the start this range of mobile teams will be going out to deliver the vaccine to people so you haven't been forgotten you're not going to be overlooked we will make sure that we do provide offer the provision of the protection that vaccines offer that's going through our first jab of Covid but also in the way we then deliver the second jab because of course in the coming weeks we're going to be delivering a significant amount of second doses as well so a programme that is still moving on at real pace and is absolutely not going to leave people behind thank you you announced last Friday that daily testing in schools was going to be paused and replaced with twice weekly lateral flow testing for staff you talked about how the scientific advice was that daily contact testing was no longer appropriate would you be able to share that advice and why that seems to be made and can you understand why that might lead to some concern from staff members with daily testing no longer taking place I think it's important not to confuse the different things that we're talking about but daily testing was about people who would otherwise be contact and asked to stay at home and to undertake isolation at home so that daily testing was a possible way to avoid people staying at home we've had advice from the regulator and our own scientific advisers across the UK not just here in Wales that we need to look again at that so it's not something we're taking forward at this point in time what we are doing though is we're making sure that we have twice a week testing with lateral flow devices for our staff in education as well and that again should provide extra assurance for those staff that we can quickly and rapidly undertake that testing so that people can have the assurance that they haven't got at the virus themselves and that then means they can go into work with greater confidence and you'll actually see in our care home testing programme the fact that we've had regular asymptomatic testing has been part was given people confidence and it's also helped people to isolate when they didn't know they had the virus as well so we're adopting a model that I think has a good track record behind it we've got more devices available to us and it's in accordance with the way the regulator says we can use those tests and the scientific and public health advice is that this is an appropriate way to deploy those tests to make sure that our schools can continue to do what I think has been a fantastic job in really difficult circumstances for those people who are in hubs in every part of Wales today that's only possible because our staff are going to staff those hubs the return to school for our youngest children after half term is only possible because of the job that our teachers and other education staff are prepared to go in and do to help to recover some of the ground we've lost in children young people's education so good news I think for all of us including of course good news for our staff with twice a week testing being made available thank you Tom and I've got the other Tom Tom Magner from Carersworld Live over to you Tom thank you health minister the first phase of vaccination is certainly being welcomed by our viewers but I'm hearing about practical issues not just about being health bound that are delaying or preventing some people getting their jabs it's exemplified by one of our viewers in Glyn Neith she's an unpaid carer for her husband her husband has complex needs he can only be moved in a wheelchair they were told that they had to go to the Bayfields Vaccination Centre for his first jab that's 16 miles from home they have no car, bus isn't possible the only option was to take a taxi and it cost them 60 pounds for the first trip his band was not being done at the GP he was told, GP is a mile away so the total cost for all of their jabs both of them will be 240 pounds beyond the reach of most especially the elderly what steps of the Welsh Government taking to ensure that it's not just about jabs in arms but the arm in a way can always and easily get to the jab for example the flexibility to step outside rigid band arrangements and go to the GP or possibly use the mobile bands that you've been speaking about well that's exactly what we're trying to do Tom, we're trying to adapt as we're going at real pace with the vaccination programme to learn how we make it as easy as possible for people to access a convenient location that's why we've got 43 vaccination centres so are there 38 hospital based clinics or are there over 400 GP locations where GP led clinics that are delivering the vaccine as well and the great majority of people should have their vaccine particularly if you're vulnerable and find it difficult to travel through one of those local GP led clinics and as we see what we hope to see in terms of supply with even more supply available to us in the months ahead we should then see an expansion in local provision because we haven't made significant use of community pharmacy yet but as we go through and deliver first and second doses in large numbers we're anticipating be able to make much greater use of that too and I hope that next week I'll be able to give some more detail on what the first stage is of a more significant round of community pharmacy are going to look like so that should expand access and should I believe help to deal with people to understand will be anxious and concerned just like your viewer in Glenneith Thank you for that we'll obviously look forward to hearing more but in the meantime they have a particular or they experienced a particular problem I'm waiting to hear from the Bayfield Hospital with their response but I'm told that when you get there you'll find that the disability access features across the carpark include a wheelchair ramp that's too steep and lots of potholes what steps would you take to ensure proper safe disability access at vaccination centres such as the Swansea Bay Bayfield Hospital and in connection with this issued what they call the AM challenge to push or be pushed across this carpark in a wheelchair to experience the problem at first hand will you personally be taking up this viewer's challenge Well Tom what I think I should see is that we should have appropriate disabled access in all of our vaccination centres to make sure that people can conveniently get to have the job available to them so that's what I expect if that isn't the case I'd be interested in not just the response you get from Swansea Bay University Health Board but any other health board areas where you think that access is a difficulty please take it up with the health board in the first instance and if you don't get a satisfactory response please contact my team here so we can have that conversation As for the pushing a wheelchair challenge within the particular site I should say I do have some experience of helping people in wheelchairs a long time ago now but I was a community service volunteer I took a year out after my A levels and I was a volunteer carer for a young man with cerebral palsy and he had an electric wheelchair where I needed to go on a bus or in a taxi I had to push him, I had to get him in and out of his chair and then to be able to push him around so I do have some familiarity with some of the real challenges of practical access and the fact that you don't always think about that until you have to do that either for yourself or for somebody else I don't think though I'll be taking up your challenge in Swansea Bay University facility because I don't think that will necessarily count as essential travel so I'm trying to do the right thing myself but in the future who knows Tom, when the pandemic is over and we can have greater access to travel and do different things I'll be more than happy to do a wide range of things that deny to me and everyone else around the country right now Thank you for your questions today Tom I look forward to speaking to you and everyone else in the future