 Fy enw i'r fwyaf, a rhesiwch a'r wahanol periwyr, i chi i'r gael. Rwy'n fyddeni'n amser i chi i'w ddweud y Fyffordd Gweinwyr press brym 2021. 5 ddweud yw'r bwyllfa yw'r wych yn dweud, yng nghymru COVID-19 yma, mae'r bwysig yn rhywbeth yn y Unig. Fe oedau plant neu oedden nhw'r Axford AstraZeneca. Mae'n gwerth iawn o fynd ymgylsiau ac yn yr hyn o'r fanylach o mynd ymgylch â'r modd ac mae'n fân iawn. Rwy'n gweithio â'n cymhwynghau. Rwy'n gweithio gwneud â'r rhan o地 atdraffwyr hefyd. Rwy'n dweud yma eich cynllun sydd wedi bod yn ymgylch. The new highly infected strain of coronavirus, which was identified just before Christmas, is spreading quickly throughout Wales. Cases of the virus remain very high. As this slide that is appearing on our screen shows, rates have fallen back from the incredibly high levels we were seeing just before Christmas. The overall incident rate for Wales has fallen from a higher 636 cases per 100,000 people on December 17 to 446 cases today. Now, this is still far too high. There have been falls in most parts of Wales, except in north Wales, where we are seeing cases rise quickly. We believe that this is because of the new fast moving strain. It's too early to know if these falls are because of the Christmas period and fewer people coming forward for testing, or if there are early positive signs of a sustained slowing in this awful virus. We continue to be cautious though, because while the number of people being tested has fallen, the testing positivity rate remains very high at 25% across Wales. Our NHS continues to be under intense pressure and has experienced some very difficult days over the festive period. Those same pressures are being felt right across the UK at present. I want to thank everyone working in our health and care services across Wales. You continue to do an incredible job under the most trying and difficult of circumstances. There are now almost 2,700 people with coronavirus symptoms being cared for in Welsh hospitals. There are 208 patients in critical care today, more than half of whom have coronavirus. This is very close to peak that we experienced during the first wave in spring last year. Very sadly, we see an increase in the number of people who are dying after contracting coronavirus over the Christmas period. For all those families who are mourning the loss of a loved one, please know that our thoughts continue to be with you. Last year was one of the most difficult years that any of us will have experienced. The pandemic has felt at times that it would never end. The approval of the first vaccine in early December and the second just five days ago gives us a real hope for a better future and a brighter year ahead. We've been using the first vaccine, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, for just over three weeks now and have vaccinated more than 35,000 people. As we know, it's not the easiest vaccine to use because it has to be stored at ultra-low temperatures and can't be transported easily. We've been primarily vaccinating frontline health and care staff at the 14-mass vaccination centre set up by health boards around Wales. However, care home residents and over 80s have also had the Pfizer jab over the last few weeks. However, the new Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is a real game changer because it can be stored in a fridge and is much easier to transport. The UK Government invested in the research for this vaccine and has bought 100 million doses for the UK and Wales will receive our population share. Its approval will help us to speed up our vaccination programme and run more clinics closer to people's homes. We will also take the vaccine into every care home to complete the protection of care home residents and staff. We received the first supply of 22,000 doses of the Oxford vaccine and more will be coming. The first Oxford vaccines are being given today. Over the next couple of weeks, we will increase the number of max vaccination centres to 22 and more than 60 general practice surgeries will offer the Oxford vaccine. Mobile units will also be set up throughout Wales. We're training a range of health care workers to give the vaccine and we have plans to work with local pharmacists, dentists and optometrists to provide vaccination clinics. We will continue to use the Pfizer vaccine at the mass vaccination centres across Wales. We're working to the priority list agreed by the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation. The rest of the UK is working to the same priority list. The immediate priority is to vaccinate frontline health and care staff, care home residents and staff and people over the age of 18. This will help to protect our most vulnerable citizens and help to save the greatest number of lives. Everyone in these groups will be invited to come to a clinic for an appointment. Health boards and local authorities will be writing to everyone in Wales with more information about the vaccine in the coming days. Everyone will get two doses. The second dose will be given up to 12 weeks after the first dose in line with the latest advice from not just the JCVI but from all four chief medical officers from across the UK. These two vaccines offer us a path out of this pandemic, but it will take a huge effort and time to vaccinate everyone. We are not out of the woods yet. We all need to keep on taking steps to protect ourselves, our families and each other for some time yet, especially while cases of coronavirus remain so high. That means keeping the number of people we are close contact with to an absolute minimum. It means keeping our distance, washing our hands, wearing a face mask and working from home wherever we can. It means keeping ourselves safe and keeping Wales safe. Thank you very much. I will now take questions from journalists as always. The answers will be broadcast live on our social media channels. The first question today is from Owen Cart from BBC Wales. Yn anodd a blwyddyn nhw y dda Gwynidog iechyd, can I start off with the vaccine? Obviously the rollout of the Oxford vaccine is terribly encouraging news, but given I think many people watching will be asking once again, when could it be my term? There's been some criticism of the speed of the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine so far in Wales, and we understand the Department of Health in England has set a target, for example, for all care home residents to be vaccinated by the end of January. Will you set similar delivery targets for Wales, and if so, what are they? I think that the letter that will go to every household will provide people with a measure of assurance about the vaccine rollout and how they'll be contacted. So instead of a vacuum of information, that letter from our NHS and localities partners, I think will provide a large amount of reassurance. Once that letter starts to go, I think we'll make efforts to publish the broad text of that so people can see the information even though they haven't had their own hard copy yet. I am going to be not just attending and chairing some of the weekly vaccination programme board meetings here in Wales, but also I expect we'll be able to write a series of milestones so we'll be able to indicate when we're able to go to not just the numbers of people over, but when we do reach, for example, that's getting them to all our care home residents or to deal with all of our paramedics so people can see that we're working through sectors and doing so. I think that I'll be able to do that providing us milestones of achievement, but also an update, because every week we'll publish information on numbers and each week I want to give a better indication of how we're going through all those occupational groups. But I think we're going to reach at about the same time as every other UK nation, the completion of not just care home residents for people in the first categories, the first priorities that we're currently vaccinating. So I appreciate everyone has questions, but I think that people at the end of this will see that we have not been behind the pace and actually the significant acceleration that we'll see in the coming weeks will give people an even greater measure of confidence about the coming months ahead. Thank you, Diolch. You said in your opening comments that the number of cases in Wales continues to be far too high and you acknowledged the extreme pressure the NHS has been under over the Christmas and New Year period. Would keeping schools closed for now be justified if it helps protect the NHS? Well, it's of course a serious consideration for us. Now, the government's been really clear that closing schools is the last resort, and there's a difference between closing schools and no education takes place and moving learning to online. We also know that it's practically more difficult for young children, primary school-age children to learn online, and it makes people who still need to work from home that's a real challenge. And it's also primary school closures, or learning from home, the primary school issue and has a real impact on people being able to go to work. What we have said though, and we made this decision in December, we deliberately made a choice to have the first few weeks as a flexible opportunity to return before the expectation that people can be back in classrooms by the 18th of January. Now, that has meant that we've been able to learn more with the appearance of the new strain to try to get our plans right. And as the First Minister said yesterday, if the evidence changes, then we'll have to take account of that evidence and that may lead to a different choice. We're expecting updated advice from our own scientific and public health experts over the next few days. If we get that in later today, that may lead to a decision, we'll get that in tomorrow if that may lead to a decision. But once we're really clear, the deliberate choices we're making are always underpinned by evidence. Ministers act on that evidence, make choices, and as you'll know, we've been very open in not just sharing information with stakeholders when it's available, but in publishing information on a regular basis. So any choice we make will be underpinned by evidence, and we'll share that evidence with the wider public. Thank you, OI. I've now got Adrian Masters from ITV Wales. Thank you, Minister. Can I just pick up on your last answer and ask you to clarify, does that mean that you in the Welsh Government are rethinking your plans for schools and for a return to schools? It means we're doing what we said we'd always do, and we've always said we'll be guided by evidence, and I must have said in not just these briefings, but in countless other interviews, that if the evidence changes, then you have to be prepared to change your decision. But at this point in time, we're working with the evidence that we have, and we're looking to understand the updated and to expect to get in the next day or two from our own scientific experts and public health advisers. And of course, we made a choice in the last week of the December school term to move high school learning to distance learning, because we could see the evidence in front of us of a rising tide of infections and the impact that was having. So we acted promptly at that time, and that was difficult, a difficult choice for ministers with a difficult practical impact for parents, teachers, and of course learners as well. And within this, we're having to balance all of the different harms. We can't allow our NHS to be overwhelmed, because we know that we cause significant harm to not just people working in our health service, but people who need our health service. And frankly, within the wider country too as well, we also know that not having our schools operating causes harm to learners as well. So we've got to balance all of those different harms and all of the different challenges in making our choices, but it's a consistent picture that we will learn from the evidence, we'll take account of the advice in the hands we get and we'll then make choices. So it's exactly in line with what the First Minister said yesterday, and exactly in line with how we've behaved throughout this whole pandemic and trying to have a proper evidence-led approach to keep people safe in schools in the wider country. Thank you. And if I could go back to questions about the vaccine. When a person has been vaccinated, can they go back to behaving the way they did before the pandemic? No, it's really important that we understand that if you've had the vaccine, that it will give you a measure of protection. What we don't yet know though is if that means that you can't pass the vaccine on to other people. There are many other vulnerable people out there as well. You could give potentially coronavirus too. But it's actually the start of allowing us to be able to make more normal choices in the way that we behave in the months ahead. And we really are to work the months ahead to get significant coverage of the vaccine, not just to save lives in the interim for people who have had the vaccine, but to allow all of us to make different choices. And I'm just as keen as anyone else is to have a different way of living my life as well as everyone else in the country. These are extraordinary measures to live with. If we can't persuade all of us to make those choices work to reduce our context to limit the spread of the virus, then we will lose many more people on the road that lies ahead. And that's what's at risk for all of us. And this really is about protecting our NHS and saving lives whilst the hope is made real with the vaccine progressively being delivered to more and more people across the country. Thank you, Adrian. Now I've got Dan Bevel from LBC. Thank you very much, Health Minister. Good afternoon. I wonder if I can combine the two key topics today, vaccines and schools, my first question. The vaccine rolled out today, no-one would say that isn't good news. It's a vaccine that we've got a lot more doses of than the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that was rolled out initially. But with the schools issue keeping cropping up, it's something that we've seen since the start of this pandemic about whether schools are safe to reopen in the toughest restrictions. Surely an immunisation programme for teachers would help put that to bed and at least stop disruption from later probably into next school year. I think there are two points today in respect of your question, Dan. The first is about the safety of schools. And actually we have good evidence since a credit to teachers and education leaders and school support staff more generally. But our schools have been environments where learning has taken place and where we don't have evidence there's been transmission between pupils and staff. And that shows the control measures that have been put in place have been largely effective. And that is to the credit of people who are running our schools in the way that our learners have behaved as well. It's really though the larger concern about the impact of school opening on the transmission rate has been about the fact that it means that there are more opportunities for adults to mix. That's both some of the mixing in the school as a workplace itself. We've had some outbreaks where there's been a breakdown in social distancing. But it's actually about the reality that people who would otherwise be at home if children and young people are at home and not in a school are able to go out and mix whether they're adults. That's been the bigger concern from our scientific advisers about the impact on the transmission rate of how schools open or moving to distance learning. So it isn't about the safety of the school itself, it's about the broader impact on community transmission. And when it comes to vaccination priorities, as I've said in the written statement I've issued today, as you'll have heard today from Dr Gillian Richardson, who's a senior responsible officer in Wales for the vaccination programme, and as indeed is set out in the JCV advice endorsed by all four of our chief medical officers. We have a priority list because working through that priority would deal with a 99% of people who are most likely to pass away if they have coronavirus. So a priority list to save as many lives as possible. Now if we move any particular occupational group further up the list that means we'll de-prioritise a range of other people. Now if the evidence were to change about the risk factors for different occupations, well that would be about re-prioritising because the risk is available to people. But if we want to move anyone, whether it's police officers, teachers or taxi drivers, into different occupational groups, further up that list and that will have an impact on people who we know are at real risk of harm, including the people that we know are part of the more than three and a half thousand of us citizens who have lost their lives in this pandemic. So it's not a simpler saying fix the problem by changing the priority list. This is all about how we save lives within the unfinished pandemic that we are all living through. Thank you, health minister. And it's pretty clear from what you've just said there and also what health, excuse me, the first minister has said over the last couple of days that we're very likely to see an extension of the current restrictions, at least for another three weeks. And with that in mind, people are much more likely to follow those rules if they know there's light at the end of the tunnel. Do you agree with your UK government counterpart, Matt Hancock, who told LBC this morning that he's thinking that perhaps by Easter time there will begin to see signs of improvement that there could be some more normality? Well, I think it's not helpful to have an artificial deadline about when we can see a return to normality. You'll have heard previous figures from within the UK government indicate that coronavirus would be sent packing within 12 weeks, then substantial normality by Christmas, and all those things I think have generated an element of false hope and expectation. What I think we all need to concentrate on is that the pandemic is still with us, it is still very much here, that's where we all need to live, our lives in a way that reduces content for all of the harm, the pain and the frustration that causes, because that will keep more of us alive and well to be able to recover together. The second is there really is light at the end of the tunnel because we have two vaccines that are available. We'll see increasing numbers of those vaccines delivered over the coming weeks and months. More of us will be protected, protected from harm, and that in itself is in many ways the biggest factor in our normality to return. When we get to Easter though of course, Easter is taking place in spring and we know from the first period of time that as the weather starts to change, as it's more likely to be warm, as it's more likely to be dry, we're likely to have a different range of choices available to us, but I don't think we should set an artificial deadline within the period of the year when people can aim to do different things. It's really about us all pulling in the same direction because the more we can do together, the quicker we'll get out of this, the quicker we will have some return to normality. Thank you, Dan. I've now got Will Hayward from Wales Online. Thank you, Health Minister. Given that the new strain of the virus is prevalent enough in north Wales to still be driving rising infection numbers, have you considered a more local approach or travel restrictions to keep it contained and are these measures likely? There should be no need for travel restrictions because the current position with Wales at level 4 is a general stay at home requirement, not advice, not guidance, a requirement because that's what the law provides. So actually there are already travel restrictions in place because unless you're leaving work for essential purposes, as I have done today, those people who are essential workers go into health and care system or police services will back to central travel. Driving, for example, to a mountain in Sledonia or Penavanna or a beach in west Wales is not essential travel, is outside the rules and outside the current restrictions that the law has already provided for. So that's the position that we're in and actually the best way to reduce the spread of coronavirus, either the previous dominant strain or the new strain that has appeared within the UK from the southeast of England, likely first, is actually to do the right thing we've been asking people to do all through this. So it's about reducing your context to a minimum, about wearing a face mask when necessary, it's about washing your hands regularly, about not touching your face, about having good ventilation. All those things are effective control measures for the new strain as well. We need to follow that advice and guidance and do the right thing even more rigorously than before to avoid the harm that will otherwise be caused. Thank you. You've indicated that the Welsh Government is still keeping an open mind on schools given the information emerging about the new variant, but there isn't much time before schools go back. When are parents going to get some clarity on this? As soon as we're able to make a decision at the moment the plan is for schools where to open in a flexible way and that was a deliberate choice as I said earlier to Owen Clarke. We made a choice before the Christmas break to have this flexible approach to opening so we could learn and try to understand more of what is happening. Now if we get evidence and advice today then that's evidence advice we may well need to act upon today or tomorrow. We need to see the evidence of advice first rather than taking an approach that will lead I think to more panic and more lack of understanding. I think people want clarity but I also think most people understand that you have to have the evidence and advice you want to make a choice on and that's where the Government is. And as I've said when a decision is made you can expect to hear that from a Welsh Minister. You can also expect at a brief period of time afterwards to have the evidence and advice published as we have done throughout the pandemic and indeed that of course will be shared with stakeholders when we have something to share with them. And that's the way we'll need to do it. This is uncomfortable for everyone whether you're a member of staff in a school or whether you're a parent as I am or whether you're suddenly just generally anxious about the picture and whether you need to do more to reduce the spread of the virus. Actually the biggest measure we can all take to help reduce the spread of the virus to ask ourselves am I doing the right thing not for someone else to do something or what can I do to play my part in helping to keep well safe. Thank you Will. I've now got Lidia Griffiths from S4C. Diolch yn fawr i'r gweithio i'ch hefyd penanda. I've spoken with frustrated gym owners who think it's unfair that they have to close their doors while fast food chains remain open for being classified as essential. UK activists say they're disappointed that gyms remain closed as the evidence remains that gyms continue to have a very low prevalence of COVID-19 in their facilities. Do you accept these points and when will the Welsh Government include gyms as essential businesses? Well I understand there are many sectors who will point to the fact that their area of activity makes a relatively modest contribution to the transmission rate. And at the start of this we're talking about the high coronavirus numbers, we're talking about the pressure on our NHS, we're talking about where there will need to take extraordinary measures to change the way that schools operate. It would be an unusual thing I think to open up other areas of activity while we're contemplating further restrictions because of the continuing impact of coronavirus within our communities. This is difficult for all of us and I really do understand why people who want to go to the gym, who recognise it's physical and mental health and wellbeing that gyms can provide. I understand why people who work in those gyms, who run those businesses, who are keen to get back. And I recognise that the sector has made great efforts to try to as COVID secure as possible. But we are in an unprecedented pandemic that has taken the lives of more than three and a half thousand of Welsh citizens. Around 2700 Welsh people in a hospital bed today, we are operating critical care at about 140% of its usual capacity. That's why extraordinary measures are being taken. And I hope that people, whether you own a gym or use one or not, but across the whole public will understand why these extraordinary measures are in place. They'll be in place for as long as they're needed to keep all of us safe. And that's the base upon which this government is acting. Diolch yn fawr. Over the weekend, North Wales police said that officers had to turn away people who had broken stay at home rules to walk up Snowden with similar incidents in the Brecon Beacons last week. Do you accept that people simply aren't following the government's rules anymore and will you be taking any further measures to tackle this? Well, actually the great majority of people are following the rules and are doing the right thing. And I'm very grateful to Evan across Wales who is doing that. It's really important that people see the value in doing that because I think lots of those people are deeply frustrated to see people plainly breaking the rules. And the rules and what's the right thing to do aren't the surprise now. You know, we've been in this position for the best part of ten months now. You know, when we went into level four, everybody, it would be very difficult to avoid the reality of what's happening and that meant stay at home. Not stay local, not take a half an hour drive to go to a beauty spot but to stay at home. So either the people that are doing the right thing are very frustrated with people who plainly aren't. And I too am deeply frustrated with people who are not doing the right thing and are finding a way to justify to themselves what they don't need to do the right thing. Well, the law is there in place for reasons to keep all of us safe and there are penalties for those people who break the rules. And actually if the police take a more enforcement heavy approach with people who are plainly doing the wrong thing and knowingly doing so, they will have the full support of Welsh Government Ministers in doing so because all of us need to play our part. And I cannot overstate my frustration with pictures of people who know they're doing the wrong thing but nevertheless doing so. We're in an unfinished global pandemic. Many of our people have already died and many more will do. We all have a responsibility to do the right thing. Thank you, Lady. I know that Adam Hale from the Press Association. Afternoon, Health Minister. Happy New Year to you. Have there been any instances of people in Wales who are not in the initial priority groups for vaccination? So people we wouldn't have expected to receive the job so far having already received a vaccination for any reason? Well, it's possible that there would have been mistaken instances of people who have got their vaccine ahead of their priority. But I'm assured from the concert I've had with not just Dr Richardson but more generally with the program that we are getting through the priority groups as we should do. I've heard and there's always a danger that an urban myth becomes a wider reality. But it may be the case that someone who works in an admin role in a health service has had the job when perhaps they shouldn't have done. But the priority is very clear. We're very clear that we're delivering the vaccine to the right people. And we want to accelerate that delivery, as I said, out in my briefing here today, but also in the written statement that I've issued for members of the Senate and the wider public. Thank you. What are the accusations you've faced as a government during the pandemic has been of passing a buck when it comes to certain decisions? People were listed to be in the summer in December when you were leaving up to people to make a decision whether they should see people over five days before that decision was changed. And now we've obviously got education unions saying they want a clear decision about the January return for schools and not needing to look authorities, the schools themselves. Is there a fear here? Is there a case that ministers are afraid of the government taking the blame if it issues firm instructions and then things go wrong? Well, there's a balance of choices that government ministers make all the time. I've appeared here on a very regular base of this briefing and many other interviews. The first minister has done more press interviews than any other first minister in a comfortable period of time. That's because of the extra pressure we're under, as indeed other ministers do as well. So we're accountable to the media. We regularly answer questions in a variety of formats. And the Senate has been sitting continually, remotely and in different ways in a hybrid format. But we've been available for scrutiny for all of the choices that we make. And even if we want it to hide and avoid responsibility, that simply isn't possible. And I think that Welsh ministers have been upfront about choices that we've made. We've been ready and available to be scrutinised. And that involves some very difficult choices. You'll recall, it wasn't that long ago, that we were facing very difficult questions about hospitality restrictions, whether there was a need. You'll recall the scrutiny about whether we needed to have the restrictions coming into place in north Wales at level four at the same pace as the rest of the country. We made those difficult choices. We were accountable for them. We were fronted up to explain what we were doing and why. I believe that we have got the grand scheme of the choices we've made to keep Wales right. And I believe that the people of Wales are responded positively to those choices. The safety of the people of Wales are overriding priority. That's the base upon which we make choices. That's where we look at the evidence. We'll continue to be how ministers behave as we play our part to help keep Wales safe. Thank you. I've now got Group of Evidence from ITN. Thank you, First Minister. You said at the start that there'd be an increase in the number of people dying as a result of contracting COVID over the Christmas period. What exactly, how do you define the Christmas period in terms of the data at the moment? One of the data that we got, I should say, on the health minister and not the First Minister, we had a contest to sort that out. The data that we can see is if you look at our continuing excess death rates you'll see that our excess death rates are at a very uncomfortably high level. You'll also see in the statement that I provided to the Senate in the recall sitting that we're seeing more people who are leaving critical care because they've passed away not because they've recovered compared to earlier periods. About from people who have been admitted from September onwards into critical care we've seen about 40% of those people dying within hospital. We know that that's carrying on with the figures that we're seeing where hospital is still the place where most people die. That's why we're asking people to think in about what they're doing. This isn't a virus where people jump up and everything is fine after a few days. The scale of transmission means that more vulnerable people are coming into our hospitals. That's why bed pressures are so high. If you were asking me in a normal winter, what was our position on the levels of extremity we have? If we had critical care running at 140% of capacity in a normal winter you'd be asking me how the NHS could cope. We're doing this with other pressures that exist through winter. We're doing this at a time where nearly 2,700 beds are being used to care for people with an illness, a disease, a harm that wasn't here last January. This is normally the busiest time for our national health. This is normally the time we see a significant influx of people coming in to our hospitals in the weekend after the new year. We're doing all of this at a time where we have such tremendous demand and pressure on our services directly from the pandemic. Looking at the Christmas period, I've spoken with people who give you the evidence that you repeatedly talk about in terms of acting on the evidence. They are concerned, but one of two things. One is that you're just not paying attention to it. As a result, they were telling you two and a half weeks before Christmas you need to lock down and you didn't. Now, of course, we've got the increase in deaths that people expected. The other, and perhaps this is even more concerning, is their worry that the evidence that they're giving to you is being watered down. So when you sit with your executive, they're not giving you the straight picture. Whichever way you look at it, that has got to be concerning, hasn't it? I can't deal with an anonymous I've told to people and told me things. What we do though is we're very clear about lots of decisions we've made, but we regularly publish the advice we're getting. We've done that from early on in the pandemic. One of the choices I made with the support of the rest of the government that published a weekly summary of the scientific evidence and advice we're getting. As I say, when I was doing these preff briefings, when we chose to close down and have additional restriction measures in hospitality, and we then made the choice to have non-essential retail restrictions before Christmas, the chorus then wasn't you're doing too much or whether you're not doing enough. You're doing too much. And we published the evidence that underpinned the choice made at each point in time. I think we're being entirely transparent about the evidence we get. And we then, from the advice, ministers then have to decide. So I'm a decision maker, the first minister is a decision maker, other ministers are decision makers, but the advice we get is crucial in the choices that we make. We'll continue to be transparent in publishing our evidence. And I recognise there are people with different opinions, different views on the evidence available to us. But I believe we are being consistent in moving with the consensus of advice we get from public health experts and our scientific advisers on what we're doing. And that will continue to be the approach that we take. Thank you. I've now got Steve Bagnell from The Daily Post. Thank you, Health Minister, and happy new year. Returning to the vaccine rollout. I appreciate you said the aim is to wrap up the numbers, getting vaccinated in the coming weeks. In Wales millions will need to get it, and as you say, it's going to take time. Do you have a target you want to get to, say, for example, 100,000 or 150,000 vaccinated per week? And when could that happen by? No, and I think this is difficult because I understand why there's pressure to have numbers. I understand why there's a pressure to say, tell us when we'll get to a certain point in time. But we're still building up an entirely new process. We've only had three and a bit weeks to go through this already. We have got plans, and in the written statement I've published today and in the briefing I've given as well, it does indicate we're expanding significantly the access. That will mean we can deliver many more vaccines to people across the country. I've also indicated we'll publish some milestones in terms of achievements, so when we're getting to the point of completing our care home delivery, we'll confirm when that is. And when we get to completing different occupational groups, we'll confirm when that is as well. So we will be transparent together with the weekly update on the vaccination numbers that we've got. But this is still so new. I think it's really important to report honestly where we are in the programme to give that indication because I think we do much more harm if you gain an artificial plucking a figure out of the air and we then didn't achieve that. It wouldn't be that there's been tremendous success in getting 99,000 people vaccinated in a certain week. It would understand that we've been painted a failure not to get an extra thousand now. That's why I think it's important to go at the maximum pace possible to protect as many people as quickly as possible because that is the biggest factor in allowing us to return to more normal choices that I know many of us are looking forward to within this year. Thank you, Health Minister. Following the lockdown and tier four measures, some areas have seen drops in cases, but others, as you've mentioned, particularly North Wales, are seeing rates increase. Does this mean with the new more virulent strain of Covid and if cases continue to rise, the lockdown will inevitably have to be extended into February and possibly beyond? Well, we can't know just yet what sort of decisions we'll need to make for February. As the First Minister has indicated, as I've said today as well, I think it would be unusual and not what people should expect for us to decide to come out of level four at the end of this week. We'll then need to do what we've always done in reviewing the evidence on transmission, the evidence that will certainly gather and come to us on the impact of the new variant, and we'll then need to understand where we are with the public because in many ways the biggest facts in our path out of this are the choices that we all make. If people are still mixing, going into each other's houses and having social calls indoors, and that will make a big difference to transmission rates staying high and the pressure on our national health service, if more and more of us do the right thing, then we know that that will help to reduce pressure faster than if that doesn't happen. So that's the place where we all need to be to play our part in keeping Wales safe and that is the quickest route out of the position that we find ourselves in. We also of course haven't seen the direct impact yet in our figures from any of the mixing that would have taken place over Christmas or indeed those people that went outside the rules and the advice we've gave over new years. So we still have some bumpy periods of time to get over in the next few weeks. That's again why we ask people to think again about what we all do to keep ourselves and each other safe to protect our NHS and to save lives. Thank you, Steve. I've now got Rob Taylor from rexham.com. Good afternoon. Rexham now is the second worst seven-day roll in the United Kingdom. You said earlier the rise could be due to the new variant. Can you expand on what information you've seen that points to that and what makes rexham Flintshire particularly susceptible to that variant compared to other areas that are seeing a downward trend? Well, the susceptibility is about where the new variant is. It's then about transmission within the community and because it's a more aggressive, faster spreading variant than what our scientists call the wild variant, then that's the reason why it spreads, and actually the danger is that once it's seeded everywhere, it could eventually become the dominant strain as it appears to be in the whole of the east of England. That's not just London and the southeast, but East England too as well. So this really is about us understanding and tracking where it is, and it's because we know more about north Wales because of where some of those Lighthouse Lab samples get sent. They're getting sent too as a regular matter, of course. More North Wales samples go to our Lighthouse Lab. We can test for the change in the structure that allows us to understand if it's the new variant. We aren't completely sure of the picture in south Wales, so that's why Public Health Wales are working with colleagues in England to make sure we have a representative group south Wales to understand how far the new variant has spread. When we publish our scientific update, the regular weekly update that we have been through the pandemic, I expect we'll be able to show more detail and I hope we'll try to map within that to show where we've got confirmed instances of cases, and I do think that will show a significant scene across north Wales, some in south Wales, but I'd say the caution up there is that we think that the south Wales picture is an understatement, it's a more accurate picture of what we think is happening within the north. Thank you. You said earlier if the police take a more enforcement heavy approach than they'd have Welsh Government support. Does that point to you thinking they should skip the engage, explain and encourage the enforcement power to their strategy? Well, look, if someone has driven from view Maris to go down to Toen, then actually that's a long journey. If that is a journey for pleasure, that is outside of the rules, exercise is supposed to be starting and ending at your own home, either on foot or on a bank. Now, there are limited exceptions, but people have decided to dress them and go for a walk up a mountain. Well, I think those people know they're doing the wrong thing. And my view is that we need to support the police in taking enforcement measures and I think the educating enforcement has been important in getting people to understand why this is happening, but 10 months deep into a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 3,500 people in our country, I have a great deal less tolerance of people who are knowingly doing the wrong thing. And I think, actually, Rob, you'll find that your readers, those of whom are doing the right thing, will have a lot less tolerance of people who are plainly not doing the right thing. Thank you. I've now got Thomas Moody from the South Wales Office. Good afternoon, Minister. Are there any further plans for mass testing in the worst affected areas in Wales? We've got a significant mass testing programme. Actually, the challenge isn't about increasing our testing infrastructure, really. It's about getting people to use the tests we have available. In the run-up to Christmas, we saw a significant number of people getting themselves tested. I think it's easy to understand why. We were seeing very high case rates across the majority of the country, in particular the southern belt and the western belt of the country. We also know that there were some people who were particularly concerned about getting symptoms checked before Christmas. So we think all those things that have very, very high numbers of people getting tested, we've now seen a significant reduction compared to that number of people getting tested. I think on today's figures it was 11,000 or 12,000 people who got tested. Actually, on other days we had, you know, nearly double that number of people getting tested before Christmas. So there's plenty of capacity within our system. We want to encourage people who have got symptoms to get yourself tested as soon as you have symptoms, isolate as soon as you have symptoms and follow the advice on isolating and on reducing contacts with other people, ending contacts with other people, because that's one of the key control measures for us and our scientific advice and public health experts regularly tell us self-isolation is very important and highly effective to reducing the spread of the virus. So get tested early, follow the advice, self-isolate immediately on having symptoms. Thank you. Can you give more details on the number of Pfizer vaccines which are currently available in Wales and how the Welsh Government is planning on scaling up the number of vaccines, both vaccines currently available over the coming weeks and months? OK, so we have our population share. I don't have in my head the exact figure of Pfizer vaccines available this week, but we think it's in the tens of thousands. The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, we should get around about 40,000 over the next two weeks and over 22,000 that have been delivered to Wales already, ready for vaccination to start from today from the rest this week. Now, we are expecting production and availability of the Oxford vaccine to be increased more significantly through February and beyond. And that also leads us being able to scale up our programme significantly as well. You'll have heard from Jill Richardson, who of course is the former director of public health in the Gwent area, talk about the fact that the limiting fact for the next two weeks is actually the availability of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. So we'll vaccinate many more people over the next two weeks and then through February, we'll expect to see another further step up and the number of vaccinations that are taking place. My understanding is there's likely to be a dip in the supply of the Pfizer vaccine at a period of time in the future, but we'll still be able to protect the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. Thank you, Thomas. I've now got Tom Magnff and Kara's world. Thank you very much indeed, Health Minister. About a week ago, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation changed the priority list to include carers who are in receipt of Kara's allowance or who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if the carer contracted COVID-19. And they appear to put them in priority six. There are still four bands below frontline health and social care workers. So, please, can you clarify exactly where unpaid carers are now on the Welsh Government list? And do you think it's good enough if your answer is band six? Are viewers certainly don't think it is? Well, as I've said before, Tom, all four nations are following the advice of the JCVI. It's been endorsed by all four chief medical officers and it is about understanding the relative risks for people and understanding how I can protect as many people as possible. And you have heard earlier that there have been calls for different occupational groups to be moved up. And the risk is that if we move those up, then actually band six becomes further deprioritised. So it's a difficult battle to understand why people will make a case for the group that they belong to and understanding that will have an impact on other people. It's not saying that there are reasonable arguments about how important different groups of people are, but this is about trying to reduce harm, trying to protect as many lives as possible. And that underpins the advice that the JCVI have given. Can I just examine that in the light of the consultation on a carers national plan for Wales? It speaks of unpaid carers as an informal workforce. We'll leave aside our viewers being angry at being called informal. But is it not possible to view unpaid carers as a workforce alongside paid care workers? And would you accept that's the best approach really? Well, our frontline health and care workers if we were to say that unpaid carers are the same risk categories people work in an emergency department or a critical care unit, the evidence doesn't bear that out. And actually the evidence of the risk that people who are undertaking that activity within our health service have lots of harm caused by those people, lots of people self-isolating and it's a big factor by the so much pressure on the service because about one in ten of our health care staff are out to the workplace at present because largely because of COVID related reasons much higher than normal sickness absence rates. And so that underpins why they are further up the list and then you'll understand of course as well the very clear medical evidence that every decade additional age provides greater risk that's why people of the age of 80 are in that top priority list and we'll go through that in accordance with the advice. I know this isn't always what people want to hear but it's really important to be honest with people and even when that's delivering news and decisions that not everyone would like to hear we're doing this on a basis that is underpinned by the medical advice underpinned by the public health advice on how we protect as many people as possible how we keep as many of us as alive as alive as possible in the weeks, months and years ahead and that really does underpin the choices we've made throughout the pandemic how do we keep people safe how do we keep people alive how are the best possible recovery and this year will be a year that we can look forward to with a much greater sense of optimism difficult months ahead but definitely a better future in 2021 Thanks for your time and questions Tom and thank you everybody I will see you soon, no doubt.