: Trefnydd, can I call for a statement on vaccination
and its potential to enabling earlier return to the classroom for
students and pupils across Wales? I held a briefing last week, in
conjunction with the Israeli embassay, from Dr
Asher Salmon, who is the director of international relations at the
Israeli ministry for health. The
IsraeliGovernment has a taken a conscious
decision, because it wanted to get children and young people back
into their education, to actually vaccinate teachers and other
school staff in order to accelerate that opportunity to return them
to the classroom. I think it would be useful to have a statement on
whether this is something that the Welsh Government has considered,
in order to help clarify the position of the Welsh Government in
relation to this matter. Thank you.
(Minister for Finance and Trefnydd): We do have the
statement on vaccination as the next item of business this
afternoon, so this might be a further opportunity to hear from
the Minister in this regard. But it's been very much the case
that the Welsh Government has been following the advice of the
JCVI in terms of schedule that it has set out, in order to
maintain the approach that we've taken throughout the pandemic of
following the science and listening to what the experts tell us
in terms of how to minimise the number of deaths for people
across Wales. But, as I say, there's a statement next, so it
might be a chance to hear a little bit more from the health
Minister.
