Everyone in top nine priority groups in Wales offered coronavirus vaccine by Easter
Everyone in the top nine vaccine priority groups in Wales will have at least received an offer for their first Covid vaccine by Sunday 3, the First Minister has confirmed.
Wales becomes the first UK nation to achieve this milestone.
The top priority groups include those aged over 50 and adults with underlying health conditions, who are more vulnerable to the effects of Covid-19.
Latest figures show 1,443,885 people in Wales have had their first vaccine dose. That is more than 57% of the adult population here.
188 new confirmed cases of the virus were also confirmed in the past 24 hour period, along with two more Covid-deaths.
The vaccination programme in Wales has prioritised those most at risk from Covid in the first phase of the rollout.
The top nine priority groups include:
People living in a care home for older adults and their staff carers
All those 80 years of age and older and frontline health and social care workers
All those 75 years of age and over
All those 70 years of age and over and people who are extremely clinically vulnerable (also known as the “shielding” group) – people in this group will previously have received a letter from the Chief Medical Officer advising them to shield
All those 65 years of age and over
All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions, which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality.
All those 60 years of age and over
All those 55 years of age and over
All those 50 years of age and over
By Sunday, not only will everyone in those groups have been offered a jab, but a minimum of 75% of those in each group will have also received a first vaccination, according to Welsh Government.
After the top nine groups, the vaccine rollout is to be offered on an age basis (oldest first) to the rest of the population.
Mark Drakeford told a press briefing on Thursday that Wales was also nearing one in five adults having completed the two-dose vaccine course.
He added: "Take-up is excellent – in over half the groups we count it is more than 90%".
Responding to the news, Welsh Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Jo Watkins, said: "This is good news and our thanks go out to everyone working on this programme and those who will be working over the Easter break.
"We must continue this roll out to ensure everyone in Wales is vaccinated as quickly and safely as possible.”