Covid vaccine: All Wales' adults to be offered jab by 31 July

All adults in Wales will have been offered a first Covid vaccine by 31 July, the health minister has promised.

Vaughan Gething said matching Prime Minister Boris Johnson's jab pledge for the whole UK would depend on supplies.

The new date is a few months ahead of the original autumn plan laid out by the Welsh Government in January.

Over-50s and over-16s with an underlying health condition will be offered vaccines by the middle of April, Mr Gething added.

Wales is currently ahead of the other UK nations in the proportion of the population that has been vaccinated.

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'Astrology rather than public health advice'

At a press conference where he made the vaccine announcement, Mr Gething said that trying to make long-term forecasts on Covid "has made a mug of a range of people".

The UK prime minister had suggested restrictions could be lifted in England by 21 June in his lifting lockdown roadmap.

In comments criticising the England plans, Mr Gething said predicting what the situation will be like after Easter was more like "astrology rather than scientific and public health advice".

"When it comes to a longer term forecasting beyond the middle of April it starts to feel that it's not a sensible approach," he said.

Rapid testing was also announced for private and public organisations with more than 50 employees.

Mr Gething said workplaces that are at higher risk will be prioritised.

Targeted community testing will also begin in parts of Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf, in a bid to find people with coronavirus who do not have symptoms.

Lateral flow tests - plastic devices that aim to give results within half an hour - will be used.

There have been more than 4.1 million confirmed cases and 121,000 deaths of people with coronavirus in the UK, while in Wales nearly 7,300 people have died and more than 200,000 have tested positive for Covid.

About 18 million people in the UK have had their first Covid jab with 878,000 of those in Wales. In Wales, nearly 50,000 have now been given a second dose of the vaccine.

Wales has the lowest Covid case rate of any of the UK nations for the last three weeks - with an infection rate of less than 76 cases per 100,000 people.

Mr Gething said coronavirus cases in Wales are now at their lowest level since September and the country's R number is between 0.6 and 0.9.

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His announcement comes as the joint committee on vaccination (JCVI) agreed that people on the learning disability register should now be prioritised.

Under Welsh Government guidance people with learning disabilities, and individuals with schizophrenia, bipolar or mental illnesses which cause functional impairment will be called for vaccination in priority group six.

Officials say they are taking an "inclusion" approach in identifying those who should be called forward, and they expect this to result in more individuals being prioritised than might otherwise be the case if the JCVI guidance was strictly interpreted.

The guidance recommends using GP surgeries rather than mass vaccination centres to administer the vaccines.

"Today really is good news and I hope we will give people lots of comfort that they can expect to be receiving those appointments in the very near future," the minister said.

Mr Gething is responsible for the vaccination roll out in Wales while the UK government purchases the jabs.

'Huge game changer'

Conservative Janet Finch-Saunders said the July target was a "huge game changer".

But she said expectations will grow as more people were vaccinated and it was "very disappointing" that Mr Gething had been "vague" about visits to care homes.

Plaid Cymru's Delyth Jewell welcomed the announcement that guidance would be issued on prioritising vaccinations for people with learning disabilities or severe mental illness, and also for unpaid carers.

However she questioned why the announcement could not have been given to families "two weeks ago".

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