Vaccine: 70% of adults in Wales receive first dose but jabs for 40-49 year olds in Flintshire still lagging behind

More than 70 per cent of adults across Wales have now received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

2,486,446 vaccinations have been administered to Welsh adults since the rollout began in December 2020.

Of those 1,785,347 are first doses. One in four adults is fully vaccinated, with 701,099 second doses administered.

The most recent data released by Public Health Wales show a high uptake in all of the first nine priority groups – with the focus now moving to second doses and vaccinating those between the age of 18 and 49.

Commenting on the vaccine rollout, Health Minister Vaughan Gething said: “We are making good progress vaccinating younger adults – nearly 70% of people in their 40s and more than 35% of people in their 30s have had a first dose.

“The enhanced vaccination report from Public Health Wales also shows that coverage of vaccination has increased in all reported socioeconomic and ethnic groups since February.

“Inequality gaps in coverage of at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine between ethnic and socioeconomic groups in older adults in Wales have narrowed since March. There is still work to do to close these gaps further and, as set out in our vaccination strategy updates, this will remain a key focus for the vaccination programme.”

However concerns remain amongst some in the 40-49 category locally about the speed of the rollout.

Yesterday morning it was announced that anyone aged over 42 in England could now book in for vaccination.

Although three North Wales counties have seen more than 50% of the age group vaccinated, in the eastern counties of Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire the number is considerably lower.

Flintshire has the lowest number of people aged 40-49 vaccinated across the region, with just 9%.

In Wrexham 22% of people aged 40-49 have been vaccinated so far – with 25% in Denbighshire.

This compares to 74% in Conwy, 52% in Gwynedd and and 53% in Ynys Môn.

We questioned the health board about the speed of the rollout in the Flintshire area in particular last week.

Our sister site Wrexham.com asked the health board about the issue yesterday, with Wrexham on 22% and Flintshire on just 9%, and asked when this can be expected to be sped up.

The response offered was the same as the one given last week:

Dr Chris Stockport, Executive Director of Primary and Community Care, said: “We remain on course to offer vaccination to the remaining adult population well before the Welsh Government’s end of July milestone. Although there is currently some variation in the per cent of people vaccinated in each cohort in different local authority areas of North Wales, we ​can see from appointment bookings for the next few weeks that this variation evens out.

“This variation is a result of the population size of individual cohorts in each local authority area; the amount and type of vaccine received; and the need to offer an alternative first dose vaccine to the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine to those aged under 30, in line with guidance from the advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

“We are continuing to contact people aged 40-49 directly with an appointment to receive a first COVID-19 vaccine. Please be patient and only contact us if you wish to rearrange or cancel your appointment once you have received it.”

They also noted that Flintshire has the highest number of people aged 40-49 in North Wales and around half of people aged 40-49 in North Wales reside in the counties of Flintshire and Wrexham.

we asked Alyn and Deeside MP