Minister says Wales "not left behind" in vaccine roll-out

* Health Minister Vaughan Gething gives today's press conference.

Wales’ health minister has denied the nation is “behind the pace” in rolling out Covid-19 vaccines and promised a “significant acceleration” in the coming weeks, reports the BBC online news.

This comes as the number of new cases in north Wales continues to climb,

Giving the Welsh Government's latest coronavirus update Vaughan Gething said he believed the Welsh NHS would have vaccinated people within the “first” priority groups, including care home residents, “at about the same time as every other UK nation”.

Letters going to every household about the vaccine rollout “will provide people with a measure of assurance” and would explain how they would be contacted, he told the Welsh Government press conference on Monday.

Amid concern about the rollout, Mr Gething said he hoped to publish more detail on numbers and “a better indication of how we’re going through all those occupational groups”.

“So I appreciate everyone has questions, but I think that people at the end of this will see that we have not been behind the pace," he said.

“And actually the significant acceleration that we'll see over the coming weeks will give people even an even greater measure of confidence about the coming months.”

* Mr Gething said the number of mass vaccination centres in Wales will be increased to 22 and more than 60 GP surgeries will offer the Oxford vaccine.

He said mobile units would be set up throughout Wales.

Health boards and local authorities would be writing to everyone in Wales with more information about the vaccine in the coming days, he said.

“We are training a range of healthcare workers to give the vaccine and we have plans to work with local pharmacists, dentists and optometrists to provide vaccination clinics.

“We will continue to provide the Pfizer vaccine at the mass vaccination centres across Wales," he added.

“We are working to the priority list agreed by the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation. The rest of the UK is working to the same list."

Mr Gething said the immediate priority was to vaccinate front-line health and care staff, care home residents and staff, and people over the age of 80, which would save the greatest number of lives.

He said everyone would get two doses up to 12 weeks apart.

* Schools in Wales will continue with the phased return to face-to-face learning over the first two weeks of the new term unless the "evidence changes", according to Mr Gething.

Teaching unions have voiced concern about sending pupils back to class while a new variant of coronavirus continues to spread.

Vaughan Gething said closing schools remained a "last resort" but added: "If the evidence changes then we'll have to take account of that evidence and that may lead to a different choice."

* OVER 300 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed across our region by Public Health Wales (PHW) today, reports the Denbighshire Free Press.

There have now been almost 19,570 lab-confirmed cases of the virus from the combined counties that make up the North Wales region since the outbreak of the pandemic - after more incidents were confirmed in the latest figures released today.

Public Health Wales confirmed that the 304 of today’s 1,898 newly confirmed Welsh cases were from the northern region.

They can be broken down as such:

• Anglesey – 14 (20.0 per 100,000 population as of today)

• Conwy – 29 (24.7 per 100,000 population as of today)

• Denbighshire – 62 (64.8 per 100,000 population as of today)

• Flintshire – 91 (58.3 per 100,000 population as of today)

• Gwynedd – 15 (12.0 per 100,000 population as of today)

• Wrexham – 93 (68.4 per 100,000 population as of today)

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board – the largest health board in Wales – has reported 595 people have sadly died to date according to PHW data.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics, which are considered a stronger indicator of the overall impact of the virus, and which are based on all deaths where COVID is mentioned on the death certificate, stand at 773 for the health board area.

Second Covid vaccination to be rolled out across Wales from today

The second COVID-19 vaccine is being rolled-out across Wales from today (Monday) with at least 40,000 doses available within the first two weeks, says the Welsh Givernment. 

Last week [Wednesday 30 December] the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) authorised the AstraZeneca vaccine as safe and effective following stringent clinical trials - just 3 weeks after the first coronavirus vaccine, Pfizer BioNTech, was approved for use across the UK.

The Welsh Government and NHS Wales have been preparing for the vaccinations’ approvals and delivery since June.

The UK Government has procured vaccines on behalf of the four nations and around 100m of these are of the AstraZeneca vaccine - formerly known as Oxford AstraZeneca - with Wales receiving its allocation based on population over the next weeks and months.

Two doses will be needed, with an interval of between four and 12 weeks between doses. This is a change from previous advice for both vaccines of a four week gap between doses, as the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has recommended that as many people as possible in the top priority groups should sequentially be offered a first vaccine dose as the initial priority.

The recommendation to prioritise the first dose will allow protection to more people in the priority groups at a time when COVID is still spreading in Wales.

Based on a UK-wide priority system, the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine has already begun to be administered to frontline health and social care staff, as well as care home residents and staff and people aged over 80 and the AstraZeneca vaccine will enable more.

Latest figures to end of Sat 27^th December show that over 35,000 people have received the first dose of the vaccine within just 3 weeks of the start of the vaccination programme.

Every health board in Wales will receive their allocation in proportion to the size of its priority population and ability to deliver, as outlined by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s prioritisation list.

Unlike the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, the AstraZeneca vaccine is stored at normal vaccine fridge temperatures. This means it will have few storage and transportation issues, making it much easier to use in community settings such as care homes and primary care settings like GP surgeries.

People are asked not to phone their GP, pharmacy or hospital asking when they will get a vaccine. When someone is in one of the groups eligible for the vaccine, they will be invited to attend a dedicated clinic which will have been set up to ensure patient safety and that of the healthcare professionals.

Correspondence will come from local health boards and the vaccine is free of charge through the NHS. People are warned to be alert to scams asking for money or personal information.

The effects of the vaccines may not be seen nationally for many months and the advice on keeping Wales safe remains the same for everyone; keep contacts with others to a minimum, keep a 2 metre distance from others, wash hands regularly, wear a face covering where required and avoid touching surfaces others have touched, wherever possible.

Health Minister Vaughan Gething said: “Today marks a key milestone in our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been called a ‘game changer’ and this is true - its potential should not be underestimated. 

“In less than a month Wales’ NHS has mobilised the largest vaccination programme our country has ever seen and so far more than 35,000 people have received their first dose.

“Now, only 5 days since regulatory approval of the new vaccine for use in the UK, a second vaccine is here and ready for use, significantly adding to Wales’ defences in the face of coronavirus and protecting our most vulnerable.”

Senior Responsible Officer for Wales’ COVID-19 Vaccine Programme Dr Gillian Richardson said: “It is fantastic news that there is now a second vaccine to help protect our communities’ most vulnerable from the harms of COVID-19.

“Pace will be governed by supply, which will start slowly this week but build vastly over the coming weeks and months. However, vaccinations are happening in GP surgeries from today and we will also see an increase in our vaccination centres over the course of this month.

“It is so important that people continue to wait their turn for the vaccine – you will be contacted when your time comes. Please do not contact your GP or local pharmacy and add unnecessary pressures to their workload.”

Care boss says home residents should get priority for Covid jabs

* Mario Kreft, chair of Care Forum Wales.

A social care leader has warned of "catastrophic consequences" if care home residents are not given “absolute priority” in the roll-out of the newly approved Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

Mario Kreft MBE, chair of Care Forum Wales, spoke out because of concerns that the vaccine might be too late in reaching uniquely vulnerable residents at a time when care homes across Wales were at crisis point and the spread of the virus was rampant.

The Oxford vaccine is the second to be given approval by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency whose head, Dr June Raine, said it would save tens of thousands of lives, adding "no corners have been cut" in assessing the safety and effectiveness of the jab.

Mr Kreft said: “It’s clearly fantastic news that the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has been approved  but it’s vitally important that it is rolled out very quickly because were are now in a desperate race against time, especially since this new super-strain of Covid-19 is so highly infectious and out of control, with community transmission rampant.

“Every care home manager will have everything crossed that the vaccine reaches their residents before the virus. There is great trepidation in the social care sector that it might not come soon enough.

“Residents in all care homes should be given absolute priority – along with the staff who provide care for them. Because of their age and infirmity, our vulnerable residents are uniquely at risk from this deadly virus.

“All residents and staff in care homes need to be vaccinated immediately – even in homes where they have had cases. Wherever they can be vaccinated safely they should be.

“If we fail to urgently protect care home residents we will be faced with catastrophic  consequences. This really is a matter of life or death.

“The situation could not be more urgent because this new mutant strain of the virus is even more dangerous because of its frightening ability to spread so quickly .

“In the meantime, I am appealing to people across Wales to adhere to the hugely important safety protocols, including social distancing, wearing masks and frequent handwashing.

“This is a civic responsibility. We will only suppress this virus and get back to some kind of normality when approximately 80 per cent of the population are vaccinated, otherwise we will never get rid of it.

“The sector is facing unprecedented pressure. We are in a perfect storm because of the risk of transmission by asymptomatic staff at a time when many staff are isolating and agency staff are hard to come by to provide cover. Many care homes throughout Wales are at crisis point.

“It may well be that Christmas has turbo-charged this virus and the exponential growth of community transmission is the greatest threat of all at the moment and this is something we must suppress, otherwise the vaccine will come too late for many people.

“Everybody in social care have worked unbelievably hard for the past 10 months and now the  vaccine is within our grasp – we just need a final push to get over the line.”

First Minister Mark Drakeford said: "Very pleased that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been given the go-ahead. Over 25,000 vaccines have already been administered in Wales and this second vaccine will start to be rolled out here in the New Year."

Llangollen awakes to falling snow

* Llangollen awoke to a covering of snow this morning (Saturday). Here is the scene just before 9am on a deserted Regent Street with the snow still falling.

Still time to sign petition, says recycling campaigner

* The pie chart produced by Phil Jones to illustrate his argument.

The Llangollen resident who started a petition for the return of full-time recycling site to serve the area has thanked all those who helped it reach over 600 signatures.

But Phil Jones has said there's still time for people to add their names to the list before he hands it into council bosses later this month.

Mr Jones said: "I decided to start a petition to re-establish access to a full-time recycling facility just one month ago. 

"I did this because I saw no sign of progress by Denbighshire County Council in negotiating access for DCC residents to the Plas Madoc facility after it reopened to residents of Wrexham CBC last spring. 

"Our council had set out to negotiate an access agreement after it closed our site at Wenffrwd back in 2007, but it never completed the task. 

"Although some people expressed the view that the pop-up at the Pavilion was adequate for our needs, I had the feeling that everyone must be using Plas Madoc for all their serious recycling needs. 

"It would seem I wasn’t wrong. In just four weeks our online petition has, at the time of writing, hit 590 signatures. In addition to this, we put out paper petition forms in Watkin and Williams, Gwyn the Butcher, Lilly Rose, and Fouzi’s. We have well over 100 signatures from these locations."

He added: "We have always maintained that the service we receive in the Dee Valley falls well short of what DCC provides in other towns and so to illustrate this point, we looked at the number of households in Ruthin and compared that to the number of households in Llangollen. 

"There is not much difference, and yet the Ruthin facility is open for 152 hours per month, while we get four hours per month. The pie charts above show how badly we are served when compared to Ruthin.

"We will be submitting our petition sometime in January, and I would like to thank everyone who has already signed it. 

"We would like to get the online version over the 600 mark. So, if you are a DCC resident living in the Dee Valley and would like to support this campaign please take the time to sign the petition. "We are not asking for donations. 

"You can do this by clicking this link. http://chng.it/DBqy8jTh   

Town mayor sends out New Year message of hope

* The mayor, Cllr Austin Cheminais.

Llangollen will "rise like a phoenix" into the new year after the tribulations of 2020, says the town's mayor. 

In a positive message to residents as 2021 dawns, Councillor Austin Cheminais says: "What can you say about 2020?

"It’s summed up perhaps by some of the words that we’ve learned use over the last nine months self-isolating, pandemic, quarantine, lockdown, support bubble, social distancing. 

"Let’s hope that a new, more positive and optimistic vocabulary emerges as we move into 2021.

"Covid 19 has surely tested our resilience!

"All our lives have been affected and changed by the pandemic and our thoughts and prayers go out to those families and friends who have lost loved ones, and those who continue to endure separation, illness, and job losses.

"Thank you to our amazing NHS, the emergency services, our health centre staff, care providers, shop workers and those involved in the many other essential public services that we now appreciate more than ever.

"What 2020 has demonstrated is that that our community is resilient, resourceful and caring.

"Llangollen’s relentless community spirit has brought out the best in us. Thank you for all your kindnesses big and small."

He adds: "A special thanks to those individuals who have stepped up and taken a lead and have mobilised and organised us to help.

"Many of you have volunteered and have shopped for each other, delivered medicines and meals.

"You have checked-in on each other, walked your neighbour’s dogs and crossed the road to let others walk safely.

"All without self-reward, only seeking to make life a little safer and better for those that need help!

"Thank you!

"Llangollen is a special place and it is a privilege to be part of the community. We should be proud and honoured that so many people from all over the world want to come and share our town with us.

"We will emerge Phoenix like in 2021. There are great days ahead, so let's get ready to greet our visitors and show them what a fantastic place Llangollen is.

"I look forward to the future with hope and optimism and to welcoming the World back to our wonderful town.

"Happy New Year, Llangollen."

"Let's hope we can all look forward to a better time in 2021."

Happy New Year 2021 from llanblogger