Vaccine roll out ‘heading in the right direction’ despite vaccine supply issues

Wales will still see vaccine supply issues in the coming weeks, however an uptick and ‘more steady rate’ of supplies is then expected.

The vaccination process is currently focusing on priority groups 1-6, with health boards aiming to meet the Welsh Government milestone of offering all the top nine groups a vaccine by April 19.

This covers everyone over the age 50 and those aged between 16 and 64 with underlying health conditions which put them at more risk of serious illness if they catch coronavirus.

Yesterday Wales reached the milestone of administering more than one million first dose vaccines to members of the public.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales this morning Dr Gill Richardson, chair of the Wales COVID-19 vaccination program, said that the rollout is “heading in the right direction”.

In recent weeks a national shortage, caused by central vaccines production capacity, has caused a drop in the number of vaccines being administered across the UK.

Asked today whether supplies are set to improve in recent weeks, Dr Richardson said that Wales will see a “very large delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine” this week which will be distributed to health boards.

She added that the allocation of first doses of the Pfizer vaccine have now been used, with second doses now being administered.

Earlier this morning Wrexham.com reported that the AstraZeneca vaccine being provided this week to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board “is more than double” than it has been of late.

As result there will be be an acceleration of the “vaccination rollout across the network of primary care partners” in the region.

However despite the increase this week, Gill Harris, deputy chief executive the health board warned that supplies of both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to be less.

At this afternoon’s Welsh Government briefing we asked Health Minister Vaughan Gething what is causing the yo-yoing vaccine supplies and when it can be expected to level off, and if there was any figures or context to ‘increases’ and ‘decreases’.

Despite earlier comments from Dr Richardson about an increase in AstraZeneca vaccines on the way, Mr Gething indicated that supply issues may continue after this week before levelling off.

He said: “We will see a step backwards in the supply that we have of AstraZeneca for a period of time – we’ll then see a much more steady rate, that’s our expectation of vaccine supply.

“I’ve had conversations with AstraZeneca and Pfizer, but also a regular conversation with the UK Government vaccines minister. The challenge will be making sure that we can deliver when we have the supply.”

“I think we will be able to do that, which you’ll see that on the figures this week, and then managing public expectations about when the supply becomes slightly less.

“Even in the last few weeks when we had a reduced supply, we’re still been seeing thousands and thousands of people every day getting a first and a second dose.

“So even in the reduced areas of supply, if you think back to where we were in January, we’re regularly doing on a daily basis more than we were doing in a week at the start of the vaccination program. That does show how our suppliers have scaled up their activity to deliver more of that and what’s really important, is our vaccine teams are then going to successfully deliver that into people’s arms.”

“They’re doing it really quickly and in way that I know from the patient feedback I’ve seen, is something that people are really impressed with both the process and also the level of care and interaction they’re having with those staff at that time.

“I can’t give you exact figures on where we are, we’re publishing information every week on vaccine supply and we’ll continue to do that to be as open as we possibly can be.”