Over 100,000 coronavirus vaccines administered in Wales

Over 100,000 coronavirus vaccines have now been administered in Wales.

The figure was released Public Health Wales this afternoon as part of its now daily publication of the number of vaccines that have been administered.

The total now reads 101,371 vaccines issued, and 108 second dose vaccines.

There is no breakdown per region until tomorrow, however speaking yesterday at First Minister’s Questions, Mark Drakeford said Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board was the first to administer over 16,000 vaccines in Wales and had the highest cumulative vaccines so far in Wales.

Today’s update also includes the case figures / rates locally, with +187 cases on the day on day reported cases for Wrexham – highest in Wales – with positive proportion of tests at 34%. The seven day rolling benchmark figure to the 8th January is now 970.9 per 100k – again the highest in Wales.

Earlier this week the Welsh Government revealed its Vaccination Plan, setting out a series of milestones for when people can expect to be offered the coronavirus vaccine.

The three milestones set out in the plan are:

• By mid-February – all care home residents and staff; frontline health and social care staff; everyone over 70 and everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable will have been offered vaccination.
• By the Spring – vaccination will have been offered to all the other phase one priority groups. This is everyone over 50 and everyone who is at-risk because they have an underlying health condition.
• By the autumn – vaccination will have been offered to all other eligible adults in Wales, in line with any guidance issued by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

In total, around 2.5m people throughout Wales could be offered Covid vaccines by September, depending on further advice from the JCVI.

The strategy depends on sufficient and regular supplies of the vaccines being delivered. It will be kept under review in line with supply of the vaccine and any further advice from the JCVI.

100 GP surgeries across Wales will also be administering the vaccine by Friday, which will increase to 250 by the end of January, the first minister announced last week.

The number of mass vaccination centres will increase to 35 over the coming weeks, with at least one in each county.  Also included in the plan is military support in the mass vaccination centres – there are 14 immunisers and 70 other personnel providing support.

The first pharmacies to provide the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will start vaccinating in North Wales in the next week and 14 mobile units, run by community nurses, will be taking the vaccine to care homes – along with the introduction of text message appointment reminders.

Speaking earlier this week Health Minister Vaughan Gething said: “The Covid vaccines offer our best hope of a return to the normality we are looking forward to after such a difficult year, which has turned all our lives upside down.

“Delivering this vaccination programme to the people in Wales is a huge task but an enormous amount of work is going on to make it a success.