 Penandarr good afternoon. Today, I'll be focusing on vaccination and the enormous amount of work to deliver what is the largest vaccination program that Wales has ever seen. We now have two Covid vaccines that we are using, the Ffizer-BioNTech and Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines. These are being used to protect thousands of people every day here in Wales. One third vaccine, the Moderna vaccine, was approved for use on Friday, but we won't be able to use that vaccine for a while yet as the first supplies will not be available to the UK until spring this year. These vaccines offer us a path out of the pandemic. They offer us a brighter future and a different relationship with coronavirus, one without so many rules and restrictions. Yn ymgymwysig o'r NHS ydych chi'n hyn yn blyneddol i'r ddweud i'r ffordd o'r pwylo'r gwaith yn gweithio'r ddaf a'r gweithio'r gwaith. I gael, rwy'n gwneud y cwmparau'n cyfan. Mae hyn yn cyhoedd ymddechrau'n cael ei ddweud i'ch bwysig o'r gweithio'r cyfan o'r mwyn. Mae'n amgylchedd ar gyfer sy'n gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio. Ac yna ddiddordeb nodi yn unig. Rhefwm edrych yn gwybod, ymdd ar y ddiddordeb wahanol o 5.5 miliwn ynoli ar y Ddwylo, yn gwybod ar y dyfodol yr adroddau sy'n gyblwyd gymaen i ddiddorol i ddodbit a hunainnol, you may also referred to as the JCVI. Yn ddoddi'r lluniau wandyngau i ddodd yn amlwg hanfodol, ddiddorol ag 10 o'r oedd lluniau, more than 86,000 people that had their first dose. We will be publishing figures every weekday from now on. The plan that I'm publishing today sets out three key milestones. By the middle of February, we aim to have offered vaccination to all care home residents and staff, frontline health and social care staff, everyone over the age of 70, and everyone who's on the clinically extremely vulnerable list or the shielded list. This amounts to about 700,000 people here in Wales. If we can vaccinate this group of people, it would protect those most at risk of serious illness and harm, including mortality, if they catch coronavirus. By the spring, subject to vaccine supply, we will have offered vaccination to everyone in the phase one priority groups. That's everyone over the age of 50 and all those who are at risk if they have an underlying health condition. By the autumn, our focus will have been on offering COVID vaccines to everyone else in line with the latest advice from the JCVI. We're also putting some early markers down. By 18 January, all frontline Welsh ambulance service staff will have been offered a vaccination. All people living and working in care homes will have been offered a vaccination by the end of this month. The number of GP practices providing vaccines closer to people's homes will have risen to 250 by the end of January as supplies of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine increase. These milestones will of course depend on Wales receiving regular supplies of the vaccines to match our ambitions and our ability to deliver. We have good supplies of the Pfizer vaccine because we've been holding on to stock for the second doses in line with the original MHRA rules. The MHRA are of course the independent regulator. You remember that these changed at New Year and the second dose is now being rolled up up to 12 weeks after the first which allows us to speed up the roll-up of the initial dose. And it's important to remember that the first dose of the vaccine provides significant protection from harm that the virus would otherwise cause. We have more than 250,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine which we expect to use by mid-Febru with more coming at the end of this month to the start of February. The Pfizer vaccine is mainly being given in mass vaccination centres to frontline health and care staff. But we are also vaccinating care home residents and staff and people over the age of 80 until the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine becomes available in much larger volumes. When we started using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in early December, we had just seven centres, one in each of our health boards. Today we have 22 centres and that would increase to 35 vaccination centres in the next couple of weeks. Now these will be a mixture of mass vaccination centres and some smaller clinics. This map shows where those centres are. It will be available online and on social media and we will keep it updated. We've received about 44,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine for use in the first fortnight. But we have been given assurances by the UK government that this will increase rapidly from next week allowing us to increase the scale and the pace of our roll-outs here in Wales. Now as you will know by now, the Oxford vaccine can be stored in a fridge and is much easier to transport than the Pfizer vaccine. It is being used to vaccinate the over 80s and it's been taken to care homes to vaccinate residents and staff. More than 100 GP practices will be running clinics by the end of this week and we have 14 mobile units taking the vaccine to care homes. Of course, this will then increase to 250, 250 GP practices by the end of this month. The military is supporting the roll-out of the vaccination programme in Wales with 14 immunisers working at centres and 70 other personnel working in the centre. On Friday, the first community pharmacy will start to provide the Oxford vaccine in a three-day trial that will start in north-west Wales. The roll-out of the Oxford vaccine will then be extended across primary care. Vaccination is life-saving and in this pandemic it could be life-changing for all of us. This is a race against the virus to save as many lives as possible. The team Wales is rolling out the biggest vaccination programme we have ever seen with the help of a small army of NHS staff, health care professionals, military staff and volunteers. As we speed up the roll-out of vaccines across Wales, it's more important than ever that we follow the rules to keep all of us safe. That means staying at home and working from home wherever possible. Keeping our distance from others, washing our hands often, good ventilation and air circulation and if we do have to go out, wearing a face mask when we're in public places. Before I take questions I want to make people aware that there are a number of scams involving COVID including a particularly nasty one which people have been tricked into paying for a COVID vaccine and then jabbed in the arm. I want to be clear, our NHS will never ask anyone to pay for a COVID vaccine. These are free. The NHS will never ask for your bank details and vaccines are not being delivered to your front door by people who have not been identified as NHS staff. Everyone will be contacted directly by our NHS either by phone or by letter advising you about where you will have your vaccine. If you think you have been targeted please tell someone that you trust. Thank you very much. I will now take questions from journalists but as usual all the answers will be broadcast live on our social media channels. The first question today is from Adrian Masters at ITV Wales. Thank you Health Minister. When you say that you will or you hope to have vaccinated 700,000 people by mid-Febru do you mean that they would have one dose or both of the doses of the vaccine that was needed? I know that the BMA expressed concern about the decision to only vaccinate or initially to only vaccinate with one dose when they met you on Friday and also talked about anger, fear and mistrust amongst doctors which is not what you want at this stage. How can you address their concerns? So the position by mid-Febru is that the first 700,000 people on the priority list should have had their first dose of either vaccine. Now that's really good news because as you'll have heard not just from the Independent Expert Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation but all four chief medical officers across the UK and indeed Public Health Wales and other public health agencies each of the vaccines provide a high level of protection against harm from coronavirus. That's really good news for all of us. The second dose is important because it does have some impact on improving the protection but in particular we think it will provide longer term protection as well and so this is the choice that the JCVI and indeed our chief medical officers have had to weigh up before giving advice to Governs across the UK and their advice was if you think of it in this way if you have two doses of the vaccine available you could choose to give that to one person to provide them with full excellent protection or you could decide to give those two doses to two different people to provide both of them with high level protection. That's the advice that we have received from the JCVI from our chief medical officers from our public health experts that means we'll actually protect more people avoid more hospitalisation and frankly and honestly the clear advice that I've had is that doing things this way will avoid more deaths. Now in the face of that very clear advice I don't see how it be tenable for me to stand here as a health minister for Wales and to decide to put to one side the advice of those public health experts are JCVI and the chief medical officer and instead do something different knowing very well that public health advice that I've received is that would cost extra lives unnecessarily. So understand that changing the advice as it came through when people some had had their second dose appointments come through will be unsettling for some people but there'll be BMA members of course who will have given that advice. BMA members who no doubt sit around the JCVI table remotely now to give advice to chief medical officers and Governs across the UK and indeed the public. So understand the anxiety some will feel but I believe this is the right choice to make and it's my decision based on the advice this is how we'll roll out our priorities and in doing so we'll provide the best possible protection and we'll save more lives right across the country. Thank you. This is a question about child care which has come from an ITV Wales viewer Sarah White who but she expresses what many others have asked and it's a question that I know you've been asked to before now. Why is child care still open? She asks. We in child care work in very close contact with children all day we provide intimate care we have to comfort the children. In my mind we've been left a friend for ourselves and the Welsh Government has no regard for us. What can you say to Sarah and her concerns? Well we're acting as ever on the advice or first question was about advice we've received about how to have the biggest possible public health impact to avoid mortality and harm to people and these choices are a balance of course. Now the choice about childcare and in particular about early years childcare I do understand why people may wonder and ask the questions that are being asked but the Welsh Government certainly isn't abandoning people to fend for themselves we're making our choices based on the evidence and advice we receive and it's still the case that particularly for children we think that particularly for younger children they play a lesser role in transmission and so we're not risking people's safety in that way and we're also looking at how that point we made earlier about how you protect people at the greatest level of vulnerability from harm. So that's what we're doing so there'll be people who may be on an early access to the vaccine because they're in one of the priority groups because they're aged or underlying healthcare conditions so they will have their vaccine early and childcare is enabled to stay open we're not requiring childcare businesses to stay open in the private sector we're providing a framework of businesses to continue to run to provide childcare that is essential for many people in essential services. Now I've talked before about the fact that our NHS is running with about 10% of staff vacancies from sickness and from self isolation requirements largely driven by COVID if there weren't childcare available some of those people we'd have a more significant challenge with our numbers so I think about balancing all the different harms in every choice that we're making we're certainly not forgetting about our childcare workforce or indeed the interests of children and young people so there'll be more to come and more to learn and as I said several times before on this platform many others if the evidence changes again then we have to be prepared to make a different decision this is all about how we protect the public all about how we keep well safe. Thank you Adrian I've now got Owen Clarke from BBC Wales. You claim in your opening statement health minister to have made a good start in terms of vaccine rollout but yet we have dozens of people getting in touch with us and certain and anxious about when it will be their turn and some GP surgeries are posting publicly on Twitter saying they are receiving fewer doses than they were expecting. Why do you think that they are so annoyed? Well I think a number of people are anxious because this is a worrying time and it's entirely understandable on a human level why people are concerned and I think given that we have made a start in Wales but we recognise that other UK countries have gone slightly faster than we have I think when we say we have made a good start that reflects the fact that the 86,000 figure that we can report from yesterday to the people who have had their first dose does show a significant acceleration on the week before with more than doubled the rate of delivery of the vaccine over the last week so the significant step of delivery that I've described is already taking place and that's evidenced by the figures and you'll continue to see the daily figures the increasing delivery of the vaccination programme so I think that will give people confidence. I understand why some general practices will be frustrated about the vaccine supplies but we're delivering the AstraZeneca vaccine in supplies that we have to keep it going and as I said the availability of that vaccine is the current rate limiting step and significantly increasing our delivery because we know there are a range of general practices and others who could deliver more if we had more supply the supply they're being given is supply for the week it's not the stretch through for the whole population that they're covering so it's week to week supply that's being rolled out as we get more supply we'll push out more supply to general practices and others as I've described now look forward to community pharmacy coming on board as well so we have a much greater spread of people who will be able to deliver the programme. I understand why some people are are still concerned about when they'll get their appointment but as you'll know from colleagues on the BBC who have been reporting this today there are more and more people reporting they've had their vaccine and really pleasantly people reporting they've had a very good experience whether in a max vaccination centre or with the local general practitioner or with the homes who are going out to provide the vaccine to care homes so uh as I've said we're making faster progress in the last week I expect even faster progress of this week as we move forward because we'll need to continue to step up the pace if we're going to get through the first four priority groups by the middle of February as I expect we will do. Thank you for that um so might ask why it's taken a month from the appearance of the first vaccine for you to come up with a plan or to publish a plan and you acknowledge there that perhaps the Venetians were quicker out of the blocks than Wales but what was the limiting factor and what was different in terms of our position compared to theirs you just mentioned your belief that the supply was a limiting factor do you are you saying that Wales got less supply? No with respect they were talking about supply for general practice to go faster that's really about the supply of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine about 44 000 doses of that for the first two weeks we think we're going to get significantly more after that that's assurance we've had from the UK government who are responsible for vaccine supply to Wales now that means we will be able to go much faster in general practice and that's the point that I'm making we know that with the Pfizer biotech vaccine initially the very clear instruction from the regulator the MHRA was we had to hold back 50% of that for the second dose the rules then changed at around about the new year and we then had the ability to push out more so again last week and the week following and indeed the week following that you can expect more of that Pfizer biotech vaccine to be pushed out to our national health service to then deliver in those mass vaccination centres so you'll see the rate increasing because we're able to use that vaccine in a different way and the supplies we've had in accordance with our population share we've actually got those supplies at the end of December for a supply that's supposed to last us through the month so we're getting them in batches that mean it's not a week to week delivery it's essentially a month supply to see us through we're expecting another delivery of the Pfizer biotech vaccine for Wales at the end of this month at the start of February and in the plan we set out that going up the pace we're expect to will run out of that by the middle of February so that means that the supplies that are due to come in around about the start of February are really important to replenish that stock so we can continue going at pace in our mass vaccination centres so that's the reality where we are and the logistics what we're trying to do to cover as many people as possible as quickly as possible but I am confident that the increase we've seen over this last week that you'll see in our figure of moving up to 86,000 plus people who have been vaccinated you can expect to see when I return here again on next Monday a further significant increase not just in numbers but an increase again in the rate of what we're able to do and that's good news for all of us and I'm tremendously grateful to everyone right across our NHS who has been working on delivering this programme the people leading and running the service and military planners who worked alongside them, colleagues in local government who have been really firm friends and very very constructive in helping us to deliver a greater service and of course the staff and the volunteers who are delivering this programme it really is a team well's approach really big progress in the last week a step up in pace in the last week and more to come on exactly that basis in the weeks ahead. Thank you Ayn, I've now got Dan Bevan at LBC. Thank you health minister, good afternoon. The first minister said on Friday that this is not a sprint but you've said today this is a race to immunise as many people as possible but you wouldn't have said these targets if they weren't achievable in your views but there's going to be a lot of moving parts to this isn't there particularly with procurement and distribution. At the moment there's only one plant that's filling these vaccines at the moment it's currently in Wrexham but if there was any problems there that's going to cause significant supply chain issues isn't there. Do you think there needs to be more of those types of plants across the UK and in Wales? Well then I've said it's a race against the virus and we're working as quickly as possible to protect as many people as possible that's exactly what you'd expect and the figures that we've released today do demonstrate an increase in the pace of delivery of the vaccine programme within the last week and more than doubling of the rates of progress. Now within the UK it is largely the Wrexham factory that is helping to deliver to fill the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, they also have an ability to do that in Europe and so there are issues and challenges about getting that vaccine into the country but we've had supplies from Germany I believe where that's also being delivered so there's more than one centre within the European partner service but it's always a case that if there's a problem in manufacturing then that could delay some of the delivery but I've not just met with the UK vaccines minister I've also had a meeting with both of the vaccine producers Pfizer BioNTech and also with Oxford AstraZeneca and there is a a healthy level of assurance about their ability to supply millions of doses through the UK in the coming weeks and months so we're in a position where yes there are lots of moving parts but we have enough certainty to go ahead and vaccinate and protect lots more people and our ability to do more will be dependent on the procurement and supply and as I say that's a UK government responsibility it's then our responsibility to deliver that vaccine across Wales and to protect people here to allow us to make different choices in our future and where does this leave lockdown restrictions based on your plan would it be fair to say that come the spring we would be able to have far more freedoms than we currently do now? Well I'd certainly hope so Dan but that really depends on the choices that we're all making I don't think people should think that because there's a vaccination problem that is increasing in pace that means we can certainly be less responsible about the choices we're making because I'm afraid that the pressure on the NHS is it is severe and you'll have heard the chief manicrosser for England talking about these being the worst days and weeks ahead for the NHS in England but also a position that is mirrored across the UK you'd have heard colleagues in Northern Ireland describing the position they face as well and you would have heard the regular stories from our staff on the front line who are caring for people who are suffering with COVID we now have more people in critical care beds being being treated for COVID than we had in the first peak of the pandemic in the spring we have more people in our critical care units than at any time in the pandemic that's something that should make all of us think about what we're prepared to do about the reasons why we have a stay-at-home lockdown in force about the consequences of our NHS being overwhelmed that's why all of us still need to play our part to take care of ourselves and each other it really is a team effort a team effort to keep well safe thank you Dan I've now got Clakey Lynch from Spedwarek diolch weenidog prynhawn beth following photos of intensive care units we've seen in the press today could you give a detailed explanation as to what NHS front line staff are facing as we speak and could you inform us when was the last time that you as the health minister paid a visit to one of our hospitals with the figures and the information we've provided I've heard the figures that I gave in the recall session for the senate just before the new year and its increase since then at that time I said that our critical care facilities were running at about 140% of capacity they're now running at about 150% of capacity and all of the choices to expand critical care mean we're making other compromises compromising the way that care is delivered both in critical care with our numbers but equally compromises that are shutting off other areas of activity so Betsi Cadwaladr has had to stop elective surgery in the rexham area now because the press they're under we're seeing that because the surgeon cases that is happening across north wales going from east to west now that does demonstrate the reality what our staff are doing and I have of course seen and heard not just messages on social media but some of the direct evidence of people talking about what they see and have to do at each shift and people really need to account for the impact on our staff of what they're seeing and doing that's not just an impact now you'll have to deal with that for a period of time afterwards in months and years as an impact of that is visited upon our staff so again help all of us need to help our NHS to help us that's why we all need to do the right thing I haven't been to an NHS hospital for months I'm trying to think about the last time I was in one and that's because we're in a position where the rules have been clear for all of us and even when we weren't in a stay at home period of time a ministerial visit isn't always something that helps people to get on with doing their job but our NHS has been extraordinarily busy for a very long time I certainly don't intend to go to an NHS hospital during the level four lockdown I have a job to do I have to be here today to deliver this press conference but for the great majority of the rest of my time I'm working from home if I go to an NHS hospital for what would essentially be a photo opportunity some staff may be pleased to see me but actually there'd be a distraction there'd be a disturbance to how people do their job and I think I need to be a partner setting an example of working from home wherever and whenever possible after we come out of a stay at home lockdown then I would like to go and see some of our staff on the front line apart from anything else I'd like to be able to say thank you as I was able to do in the summer what I went to the Royal Gwent and I got to meet in a social distance way over 60 staff what was a bright and sunny and positive day I look forward to more such positive days to celebrate what our NHS has done together with colleagues in social care to keep all of us safe at this most extraordinary time that we're living through. Bioch we need dog. We're aware after speaking to energy staff in north Wales that the system to register for a vaccine is given to staff via a link a link that could be passed on to other colleagues or maybe even individuals who are not essential workers or part of a priority group. Are you willing to admit that there are flaws in the system relating to the rollout of the vaccine to essential workers and priority groups? Well it's always possible some people can try to cheat or work their way around the system no system is foolproof there's no issue with acknowledging that this is about all of us as I say doing the right thing and that means not going to bend or twist the rules to benefit ourselves friends or colleagues outside it it means not going to bend the rules to put other people at risk and it's really important that people do the right thing with the vaccination programme that means doing what you're asked to do in booking an appointment not calling the NHS to say when will I get my appointment when you're asked to make that appointment and again for our front line staff to do the right thing as well I understand why people will be anxious about colleagues friends family and loved one but the reason we have a priority list is to protect people as quickly as possible in the highest risk categories and if we do that in accordance with that priority list we'll avoid the greatest amount of harm to our most vulnerable citizens so all of us really do need to do the right thing thank you flaky I've now got Andy Davis from channel four thank you um some people may have been surprised to see over the weekend that wales had in fact around 200 000 more vaccines than it had so far administered can you understand why that might look like the Welsh Government isn't vaccinating people as fast as it possibly can and do you accept that the language used by the first minister about this not being a sprint risks suggesting a lack of urgency it is a sprint isn't it because every vaccine administered in effect is a chance to save a life well I think that there's the the risk of getting too lost in marathon or sprint the reason why we're telling this being a marathon is it'll take months to get through this you know we really don't think as indeed as the rest of the UK don't think we'll get through the adult population until the autumn now months of this well I think that's a marathon rather than a sprint we're not going to complete everything within the next few weeks that's the only point we're really making because of course we're trying to go as fast as possible and as I've made clear this is a race against the virus the damage that is being done the faster we can vaccinate people in those priority groups the more we'll be able to do to protect those people from harm the sooner we'll be able to make choices about releasing some of the restrictions that we're all having to live through so I just don't want there to be any confusion or a sense that actually there's a lack of urgency here when actually there's a very real sense of urgency here within the government and indeed our NHS who are delivering this vaccination program and on the figures as I've dealt within a previous answer Andy the rules have changed about how the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could be stored and delivered we had to store half of that vaccine initially to protect the second dose then the independent regulator the MHRA changed the rules on that and indeed the revised advice we had from the independent expert JCVI and the advice we had in chief medical officers about extending the dose interval that's meant that we can use more of those so up until at the start at the start of the new year we're said to keeping back a range of that vaccine because we had to we're having month to month supply so the supply we have has to last us through the whole month we're now in a different position to be able to use more of that supply able to use it in a different way to protect more people and I do believe we'll make very good use at a rapid pace of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that we have before we get another deliver at the end of this month to the start of the next month when we then expect and we'll need another delivery because we'll have depleted our stocks and need more to carry on using that in our mass vaccination centres and as I said as we get more of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine we'll be able to do even more in primary care so you can expect to see when supply is increasing from Oxford AstraZeneca a much greater access and greater pace in primary care as need you'll see a much greater pace for our mass vaccination centres over the coming weeks I think there may be quite a few NHS workers who might be watching this interested to hear you raise the issue of the booking system before Christmas at another press conference I raised with you concerns in one health board about the vaccine booking system that there were NHS workers completely exasperated by the delays in getting through this morning I've been speaking to two other NHS workers in another South Wales health board one of whom they said they spent much of Friday at work internally trying to book a vaccine they got home spent five hours called 192 times but couldn't get through on Saturday another 224 failed attempts and then they gave up they're angry and it's adding even more stress they say given the amount of time that the government and the health boards have had to prepare for this shouldn't these issues have been ironed out by now well I am aware that many people have had their vaccine and had their appointment without going through the process that you describe now that doesn't mean that that person's experience isn't real and valid and a point of real concern for me and indeed people running our national health service and I understand completely the very real measure of frustration and exasperation that my NHS staff must feel so again Andy if you can provide me with the details because I can't comment individually on the detail that I don't know then I'd be very happy to make sure that gets looked at again because I've understood we've seen a real increase in the pace and step of the vaccination program for our NHS and social care staff but if there are instances where that's not working as well as it should do those are those opportunities to learn and to improve and I want to make sure they are taken up to do that because of frustration of the staff that you describe is an extra amount of pressure that our hard-pressed NHS staff really could do without so I'd be grateful to receive the details for us to do something about that because the two biggest parates for me today are to make sure NHS doesn't fall over and get overwhelmed by the extraordinary pressure it's under I'm going to look after our staff to make sure that happens in health and social care because if social care falls over we know we'll see a flood of activity coming into our hard-pressed natural health service and the other big priority for me is the vaccination program those are the biggest things on my agenda now my biggest priorities so please do some of the details and make sure something gets done about it thank you I've now got Mark Smith from Wales online thank you very much indeed health minister would you be able to give us an update on the more infectious strains of coronavirus circulating in Wales what percentage of cases are thought to be the strain that emerged in the southeast of england and how many cases are you aware of in Wales of the South African strain of the virus on the South African strain of the virus I know that we've had literally a handful of people from South Africa within the last travel window we've tested positive and I'm not aware that we've had the the genomic testing back to test whether that positive test is for the South African variant that is more transmissible as you say for the Kent virus strain that we've heard much about we published a technical advisory group report last week that set out the seeding arrange of that across the country it shows lots within north Wales where we think it's on the way to becoming the dominant strain if not the dominant we're not sure that it is the dominant strain in south Wales yet that's why public health Wales are working with colleagues in England to get more of that representative sampling done so I can't give you an exact figure in south Wales but in north Wales we think it's already at or above 50% of the the new positive tests that are coming back so I'm afraid it doesn't appear that it's already the dominant strain within the north of our country and that reiterates the reasons why we all need to do the right thing to avoid contact with other people not to mix unnecessarily with other households to wash our hands avoid touching our face have good ventilation and if we all do the right thing in this stay at home lockdown we'll ease and reduce the harm that we know is being caused we'll start to see the COVID rates come down right across the country we'll see an end of the surging that is taking place in north Wales and we'll ease the pressure on our national health service that otherwise could be overwhelmed all these things matter even more with a vaccine programme increasing its pace and scale because that really does show that more is happening to allow us to make different choices in the future only if we all do the right thing here and now. Thank you very much indeed and secondly you've said already that more than 100 GP surgeries will be running vaccination clinics by the end of this week and 250 by the end of the month would you be able to explain a bit more detail about who will be administering the vaccines in GP practices and whether you believe it will have any detrimental impact on those people looking to access their GP for non-COVID related problems? Well of course there's a trade-off between the enormous priority of the vaccination programme and other forms of of general practice and primary care now you can't make a choice that says that you can have all of your staff delivering this enormous huge scale vaccination programme the only comparable thing would be the smallpox vaccination programme that was run many years ago that's the scale of what we're trying to do and you'll have heard Simon Stevens say that in England he equated the getting to the mid-febri target of doing the same activity in five weeks that the NHS in England managed to do in five months in delivering the seasonal flu vaccine that's the scale of what we're doing you can't do that and manage to maintain every other part of our health so it's including in primary care there are choices to be made about where and how those normal activities are run and whether we can pause some of them to deal with the enormous priority of the vaccination programme now some of those are choices that are need to make about the primary care contract but I know that I think our general practitioners and community pharmacies and lots of our staff understand this will avoid so much harm that we need to make that balanced choice that isn't unnecessarily comfortable for everyone but that's the reality of living with this deadly pandemic and if we want a way out we have to make some of those difficult choices to allow all of us to enjoy a different and a better future throughout the rest of 2021 thank you mark I've now got Adam Hale from the press association thank you good afternoon health minister you say in your vaccination plan that people in particular groups will be offered a job by a certain date can you can you clarify for us whether you're saying those people will be given a first dose by that date or are you saying that they will just have an appointment in the diary for some time in the future we expect to substantially deliver the vaccine by then but it does of course depend on whether people accept those appointments or rearrange them so some people may simply refuse other people may not be available for other reasons that you could all imagine and understand so this is about making sure that our NHS is in a position to offer those vaccines and to deliver them or other things being equal with that supply or indeed people attending for their vaccination appointment thank you and can you expand further please on your comments in your opening statement about wearing a face mask when we're in public places is it now Welsh Government guidance to wear masks outdoors if there are other people around us no because we should be so few distance from other people but this is about the recognition when you're going out and about in the public when you're going into indoor spaces if you're doing a food shop if you're going into places where you can go then it's a reminder for people to wear your face coverings when you're doing that and I see a number of people who have them as they go into different parts of the town that I live in because you're going into one shop and into another if you're going to more than one to do your essential business then it's easier for somebody to keep their their face coverings on there isn't a change in the general advice that we're providing but this is part of what we can all do to protect ourselves to maintain our difference to wear a face covering where possible I think reinforce that message is a good thing thank you Adam we've now got Steve Bagnell from the Daily Post thank you Health Minister we've seen pictures of people queuing at vaccination centres and heard from people within those queues that social distancing is not being practiced sometimes none of the queues being policed is there a danger then that vaccination centres could actually spread the disease unless appropriate measures are taken and are there protocols with vaccination centres to adhere to to prevent this well all of the mass vaccination centres have a range of measures in place to help and support people but fundamentally it's about all of us doing the right thing and if you're going to a COVID vaccination centre to have a vaccine to protect yourselves and people around you the last thing you should want to do is to forget about the basics of social distancing but I do have some sympathy for people particularly if you've been following the rules as the great majority of people in Wales have if you've been staying at home and reducing your contact then I can understand why if you're in a queue with other people we are going through a shared experience of getting your vaccine then some of that social distancing may slip but we really want people to do the right thing and that still means you can have a conversation with people are more than two metres away from you but to please make sure that that social distancing is practiced to protect you and to protect other people not just those in a queue but the staff who are helping us to deliver this extraordinary vaccination programme I don't want to see an outbreak that affects our staff and potentially causes a blip in the vaccination programme to reduce the possibility and availability of staff to help delivering this programme to protect more and more of our vulnerable citizens across Wales so it's really an appeal for all of us to do the right thing including if you are going to receive the good news of a protection from COVID with a first shot of one of the two vaccines available. Thank you and with infection rates in Wrexham at nearly 900 per 100,000 now why isn't mass testing being considered when in Liverpool it was done when the rates were much lower? Well of course when the rates were much lower in Liverpool they weren't in a stay at home lockdown it should be the case that we're reducing mixing between houses because it shouldn't be taking place there are very limited circumstances for people to see and have contact with people who don't live with them so we have support bubbles there are very limited other circumstances where it can take place if we're all doing the right thing then actually that avoiding contact should reduce the rates eventually the challenge is where the virus is already seeded the people you have contact with in your own household are likely to get that virus that is much more transmissible that is what lies behind the surging rates in north-east Wales in particular so if we're all doing the right thing then that is the best control measure that we can actually undertake and of course people who do our symptoms should go and get a test the testing infrastructure is still there and actually in the last day or two we've seen a significant increase in testing compared to the position that we were in a week and a half ago we saw a real lull after the Christmas and New Year period so if you have symptoms get a test make sure yourself isolate please don't mix with other household if you do that you'll be doing the best thing possible to get your family safe and other people too. Thank you Steve I've now got Rob Taylor from rexham.com Good afternoon on the new daily data the vaccination tab of the public health Wales dashboard still gives the old 49,000 figure for doses the front page overview gives the new updated 86,000 figure is that how the updates are planned or is that an error in the reporting and the dose per data per vaccine information has been circulated by for example your colleague our local MS and also you've stressed the importance of supplying stocks to understand the context of the process can all this data be made public on a daily basis? Yes we're committing to provide updated data on vaccinations through every weekday and indeed we're with the first UK country to do that because I believe other countries are going to publish later on today so we're doing what we said we do so we're not behind other countries we're actually ahead by a matter of hours so we will be able to provide that update on vaccination taking place the day before there'll always be some correction in terms of data entry but it should give people a better idea of the pace and scale of the progress that the vaccination programme is making because I recognise there's wide-scale public interest in this and I hope they'll give people some confidence and assurance and as for the matter tidying up the way that the data is presented I'm sure that we'll learn more lessons in doing that in the next few days so there's nothing sinister in that it's simply a matter of having data that is presented in a way that is as quick as possible but also to give people that trust and you will continue to see the weekly information published where we'll have more time to make sure that data is cleaned and again as I said in my opening will they be able to provide some more information as we're going through the milestones and other data we have available to us so we'll be able to provide more information not less as we continue to make progress. Thank you and you've previously said the Welsh Government looks around the world to learn from others about tackling the pandemic. Israel has already managed to vaccinate what would be the equivalent of over half the population of Wales and that's using the tricky Pfizer vaccine. The details to down the Welsh Government plan appears to be significantly slower than what is and has been done elsewhere. Why is that? Well it isn't significantly slower than what's done elsewhere part of the example you've given of Israel so actually within the UK we think we'll be able to match the pace if not do some catch-up with other UK countries because of significant expansion into primary care so people can be confident that the vaccination programme was already scaled up over this last week because we've seen the real increase in the rate per day and per week from the figures that we've published you're going to see more as we go through the days of this week the moment we get to the end of the week you should see not just an increase in numbers but an increase in the pace as well and I think that should give people real confidence that people are doing exactly what we've said we do more of the Pfizer variant vaccine going into mass vaccination centres the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine being used progressively week on week in much greater number as supply comes in and in particular a really big thanks once again to colleagues in primary care our general practitioners and then community pharmacies will be coming on board following the trial that will start in north Wales this week so there are reasons to be positive and you'll see from the figures an increase in the pace and the scale of what we're able to do to protect people here in Wales. Thank you Rob we've now got Tom Magnuth and Carersworld Live. Thank you very much health minister if I heard you correctly and accurately summarise you're saying that vaccination success stands or falls on whether people accept the vaccine offer and attend for their job. I'd be interested in your thoughts on a problem that we've had drawn to our attention from a 93 year old viewer in north Wales she received a text yesterday Sunday offering her a COVID-19 vaccine there was no date or time or provider in the message she was invited to make contact the text message was labelled no reply her phone is a basic mobile she has no internet at home can't call anyone on a Sunday so earlier today she called her GP but no one answered she's now really worried that it's her chance gone and she'll be assumed to not want the vaccine this isn't the first time we've heard that aren't you remind too much on everyone having the latest technology and we're going back to basic phone calls and answering 24 seven across this issue employ more people if necessary to do that no the NHS isn't going to forget and leave people behind so if there are some of those challenges and again the the particular details would be really helpful tom so we can take that through with our team here but with the local health board to see if there are things that we can improve on but there are plenty of calls that are being made there are plenty of appointment letters that are being sent out as well different people different contacts may want contact in a different way so it's doing this as quickly as possible to generate the fastest rate of progress for people to get the coverage and the protect and we know that most people are very very keen to have but some people may deliberately opt out as opposed to thinking I might have missed my appointment I wouldn't want people to feel anxious or fearful so if you provide the details for us we'll get back to you and as well as the health board looking at it we'll make sure whichever health board it is comes back directly to you so you can assure your viewers that the matter has been taken up with a response provided. Thank you very much indeed for that minister we'll certainly follow up and can I now move away from vaccines on to perhaps a more future thinking question from Sylvia from byla Glamorgan and she says when can Wales expect to have services for post viral patients with long Covid and MA like they've announced in England? Well we have a different pattern of dealing with long Covid here in Wales and I've issued written statements on this we've had a range of areas of work because it's about a multi disciplinary team because the range of symptoms and challenges that people live with with long Covid differs from person to person so it is about a range of different people working together to support that person and we've got a slightly different frameworks where they're calling them clinics in England but we recognise a multi disciplinary approach is the right thing and actually we'll learn more from what we do as we go on and on we'll learn more from what we're doing here in Wales and of course we'll learn for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland are doing too because none of us have the exact answers there's a danger that people just assume that whatever anyone else is doing must be better whereas actually here in Wales we've got an approach that's been worked through by clinicians and indeed working with patients themselves not every patient who's got long Covid would have been consulted and taught to you before the programme has been put in place but we have definitely taken account of patient voice and patient experience in doing so and I'll be very happy to provide an update in the weeks and months ahead about what we're getting from the multi disciplinary approach so we adopted here in Wales and then to understand there's more we can do because this is one of the challenges that we'll be living with for a significant period of time afterwards even after we've finally completed this vaccination programme we know that there'll still be many people living with the after effects of Covid we know there'll be a huge recovery process for our health service and our economy for many years ahead so big challenges to get through in the future but the starting point is we're in a really difficult position now but there is hope for a better 2021 ahead because we know that the vaccination providers with protection because we know there are different and more positive choices will all be able to make at some point during the year ahead many thanks Tom thank you to everyone for your time today I look forward to seeing you again next week