24/7 vaccinations not ruled out for Wales amid call for ‘vaccine army’

The first minister has said that offering coronavirus vaccines 24 hours a day, seven days a week has not been ruled out for Wales.

Currently vaccines are being carried out at 100 GP surgeries across Wales, along with the opening of mass vaccination centres.

A vaccine trial is underway at a north Wales pharmacy and further GP surgeries will be offering vaccination in the coming weeks.

14 mobile units, run by community nurses, will also be taking the vaccine to care homes and text message appointment reminders will be introduced.

Last week the Welsh Government unveiled its mass vaccination plan which aims to offer 2.5m adults throughout Wales a coronavirus vaccine by September, depending on further advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Over 126,000 vaccines have been administered so far in Wales, with the Welsh Government planning on vaccinating all care home residents and staff; frontline health and social care staff by mid-February, along with everyone over 70 and everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable being offered vaccination.

By the Spring the aim for vaccination to 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.

However there have been growing calls for the Welsh Government to increase the number of vaccines being administered, with Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister, Andrew Davies MS suggesting that a “vaccine army to enable Wales to have 24/7 vaccinations” is needed to help ramp the process up further.

Asked on Friday if there are plans to administer vaccine 24/7, Mr Drakeford said the Welsh Government hasn’t “closed its minds to doing so” in the future, but that it would not appropriate at this time.

He said: “In these early stages, when we are focusing on people who are getting on in age, who are physically vulnerable, who live in care homes, we’re trying to offer the vaccine at a times of the day and in places that are convenient for them and match those needs are

“In the future as we move into further age groups, and the patterns of supply of the vaccine increases, we haven’t closed our minds to doing things on around the clock basis where that would be necessary.

“But at the moment, it wouldn’t be the most effective way of using the supply of vaccine we have, the supply of our workers that we have to deliver it and the nature of the population that we’re serving.”