Seventy per cent of care home residents and staff in Wales should have received the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of this week, Health Minister Vaughan Gething has said.
Mr Gething told BBC 5Live that 70% of the over-80s in Wales should also have had their jab by the end of this week, and there has been a “significant effort” to vaccinate frontline health and social care staff.
“We’re really working through the population now we’ve got a combination of Pfizer and AstraZeneca,” Mr Gething said.
“I’m expecting later this week to publish figures giving more detail about how it’s being done but we do know that every frontline paramedic in Wales has either had a jab or been offered one.”
Mr Gething said he expected that the over-70s in Wales would be invited for their vaccinations “in the near future”.
– Cressida Dick ‘baffled’ why officers aren’t a vaccine priority
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said she was “baffled” why frontline officers are not closer to the front of the queue to receive the vaccine.
She told LBC radio: “In cohort five to nine you have people in what I might call my age group and I am baffled really why, but obviously this is a decision that the Government’s made so far on the basis of something called the JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation), who are experts.
“But in many other countries, police officers and law enforcement colleagues are being prioritised and I want my officers to get the vaccination.”
Dame Cressida said there have been 97 incidents where someone has mentioned or threatened Covid before coughing at an officer, with 48 spitting attacks.
