Call for Covid vaccination focus on under-30s in Wales

A senior Welsh doctor says there needs to be a push to encourage younger people who have still not been vaccinated to get their jabs.

According to Public Health Wales (PHW), there are still 118,000 people aged 18 - 29 who have not had a single dose.

Just over 67% of the Welsh population has now been fully vaccinated.

But GP David Bailey, chairman of the Welsh council of the British Medical Association, said it was vital to reach those unvaccinated.

"That will reduce not just transmission, but also of course, serious illness, which will mean the NHS can get on with the massive backlog we've got to deal with over the next three or four years," said the Caerphilly doctor.

Dr Bailey said he accepted the risks of becoming critically ill from Covid were less for young people, but he said there were still overwhelming benefits of vaccination.

"Certainly, the evidence at the moment suggests that younger people are more likely to get long Covid, even though they are much less likely to die," said Dr Bailey.

"They've got their own reasons to continue getting double-vaccinated, so they can get on with their lives.

"It's not just about deaths and serious illness, it's actually about the long term problems we are seeing with Covid, which really are disrupting people's lives".

The comments from the GP come as the number of vaccines given out in Wales dropped to their lowest levels last week.

According to health officials, there were just over 40,200 doses administered over seven days, up to Saturday night, with 74% of those jabs being second doses.

Another 2,140 under-30s were given first doses in that time - one in five of the first vaccinations given out.

In March, upwards of 38,500 vaccines jabs were being given every day.

On Sunday, PHW said there had been a further four deaths of people with Covid-19, meaning 5,638 people with Covid have died in Wales since the start of the pandemic.

There were 1,099 new cases of the infection recorded on Friday - nearly a third of them across the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board area covering north Wales.

Denbighshire has the highest case rate in Wales, standing at 316.6 positive tests for every 100,000 people. The average case rate for Wales is now at 156.6 per 100,000.

On the vaccination front, 2,141,039 people in Wales have now had both jabs.

Public health expert Prof Linda Bauld said Wales vaccination programme should be recognised as a "success", but said there was "still some distance to go", especially on vaccinating the under-30s.

"We need to keep our efforts up, this has to be an evergreen offer for these vaccines, so these people can come forward at any point," said the University of Edinburgh behavioural scientist.

She said for younger age groups the vaccine offer had to be "about convenience" and "taking vaccines to them to make it easily available".

"This is a programme that is going to run for some months to come, and I really think it's about learning internationally what we can do, and try to protect as many people as possible," added Prof Bauld.

The Welsh government said one of the key principles behind the vaccination programme was to ensure there was "no one left behind".

"The NHS will always be ready for you if you didn't take up your first offer of Covid-19 vaccination, but it is never too late to arrange an appointment," said an official.

"We've already started to vaccinate 16 and 17-year-olds and continue to encourage everyone eligible to come forward".