Covid: Wales 'ready to vaccinate at a higher rate'

There is a "light at the end of the tunnel" with a third vaccination against Covid-19 but people need to keep safe in the meantime.

That's the message from the body representing health boards in Wales.

There are more than 2,700 patients in hospital with Covid, according to latest NHS Wales figures.

"It's incredibly serious at the moment, I can't emphasise that enough," said Welsh NHS confederation director Darren Hughes.

There were more than 1,700 confirmed and suspected Covid-19 patients in Welsh hospitals at the most recent count, on Thursday.

There were also another 1,000 patients in hospital beds recovering from the virus. Both are at record levels.

The number of Covid patients in critical care is also at its highest point since the first wave peak in April.

On Saturday, Public Health Wales reported a further 62 deaths with Covid over recent days, taking the total number since the start of the pandemic to 3,919.

On New Year's Day, 55 people died - the highest for a single day during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, a new report from the Welsh Government's scientific advisory body suggests there are "significant numbers" of the faster-spreading new variant of Covid in north Wales, particularly in Wrexham and Flintshire.

It estimates up to two-thirds of cases in the Betsi Cadwaladr health board area are of this type.

There was some suggestion it was increasing in south Wales, including Cardiff and Vale health board.

"If the new variant grows in Wales as it has in London, east and south-east England, it will bring a period of significant further increased pressure on the NHS," the report warned.

"In intensive care we're running at about 165% of normal capacity, we've got, you know, getting on for 3,000 people now in hospital with Covid or recovering from Covid," Mr Hughes told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

One consultant at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital near Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taff, told BBC Wales of the pressures and that "we're definitely having more younger people with Covid that are becoming sick, the volume is very high in the community".

Mr Hughes described the vaccination rollout programme as a "huge undertaking" for staff already under pressure due to the health service's workload.

"If you look at the headline figures, Wales is slightly behind other parts of the UK, but I think it's important to remember that the vaccine has been delivered by healthcare staff," he said.

"What we are doing is vaccinating everybody and delivering the vaccines that have been delivered to Wales."

Mr Hughes said: "Things are being ramped up from what I understand from the sort of 25,000 vaccinations being delivered to Wales, to go to much higher numbers in the coming weeks.

"We are ready to vaccinate at a much higher rate as soon as the vaccines become available, and good news yesterday that a third vaccine is coming on stream, pretty much straight away."

He added: "We understand how tough it is for all of us in our families living in Wales; people directly affected, businesses affected, people's mental health affected.

"There is a light at the end of the tunnel with a vaccination coming online but please do all you can to keep yourselves and your family safe so that we in the NHS can can look after you all."

About 100 patients in Swansea Bay got their first vaccine dose, when the Killay medical centre held a clinic on Saturday.

Among the first in line was 82-year-old Marcia Sturk, who said she was "happy to take advantage of the opportunity" to receive the vaccine.

There are about 1,800 patients aged over 80 on the surgery's list alone, and across the health board area, there are around 24,000 in that age group who should receive a first dose in the next few weeks.

Surgeries will be contacting patients directly, by telephone or letter, to arrange an appointment.

GP Dr Chris Johns said: "We are very pleased to be involved and begin these vaccinations. It feels like it's been a long time coming, but we've started at last.

"We will be vaccinating 100 people today and as well as holding special clinics in the surgery we are also looking at using some community venues as well to help us get around everyone."

Meanwhile, Cwm Taf Morgannwg said 808 doses had been given at care homes in its area so far, with another 954 planned for next week.

More than 300 have also been vaccinated at GP practices across the health board, with a further 3,000 planned for next week.

In Denbighshire, Vale of Clwyd Conservative MP Dr James Davies said he had been "inundated with messages from understandably anxious elderly constituents and relatives of care home residents who have seen those in their position being vaccinated in nearby Cheshire, Wirral and Shropshire, but are yet to receive an invitation for vaccination themselves".

Betsi Cadwaladr health board, which manages the health service in north Wales, said it had received 5,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine this week to vaccinate care home staff and residents, as well as hospital inpatients and those over the age of 80.

It said 300 people aged over 80 would be vaccinated at mass vaccination centres this week, and arrangements had been made to contact individuals by telephone.

The first minister has said the "ambition" is for the top priority groups in Wales to get Covid vaccines by mid-February.

Prof Andrew Easton, an expert on virology at the University of Warwick, said the global spread of coronavirus could mean society has to "live with the virus rather than to hope for its removal", similar to flu.

"It has gone so far around the world that eliminating it is going to be almost impossible, not entirely" he said.

"So we will have to learn to live with it," he said, adding that improved hygiene habits such as wearing face masks may need to continue into the future.