The Vale of Glamorgan will not have any mass vaccination centres for the foreseeable future after a new Welsh Government plan for tackling coronavirus emerged on Monday.

Health minister Vaughan Gething announced Wales’ coronavirus vaccination plan, which plans to see all eligible adults vaccinated by the autumn.

To help this, there will be 35 vaccination centres operational in the coming weeks, but none of them are in the Vale – and the one planned for Holm View Leisure Centre in Gibbonsdown near Barry has been withdrawn from the plans.

It means only GP practices in the Vale are likely to be administering vaccinations for the timebeing.

Speaking of the new vaccination plan, Mr Gething said: "This will of course depend on Wales receiving regular supplies of the vaccines to match our ambitions and ability to deliver.

"We have more than 250,0000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine which we expect to use by mid-February with more coming at the end of this month.

Barry And District News: Map for new vaccination centresMap for new vaccination centres

"The Pfizer vaccine is mainly being given in mass vaccination centres to frontline health care staff.

"We are also vaccinating care home residents and staff and people over the age of 80 until the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine becomes more available in much large volumes.

"When we started vaccinating in December, we had just seven centres, one in each of our health boards.

"Today we have 22 and that will increase to 35 in the next couple of weeks."

A new vaccination centre will be set up in Cardiff, the health board said – but the locations of the new sites across the whole of Wales will not be revealed after the Welsh Government decided it would be a breach of national security to do so.

Barry And District News: Holm View Leisure Centre will not be mobilisedHolm View Leisure Centre will not be mobilised

The health minister set out three key milestones for vaccinations on Monday;

  • By mid-February all care home residents and staff; frontline health and social care staff; everyone over 70 and everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable will have been offered the vaccination.
  • By spring; vaccinations will have been offered to all of the other phase one priority groups, which is everyone over 50 and everyone who is at risk because they have an underlying health condition.
  • By autumn vaccinations will have been offered to all other eligible adults in Wales.

A spokesman for the health board said: “The health board identified three mass vaccination centres in December to support the roll out of the COVID 19 vaccination programme.

"The health board is currently prioritising frontline health and social care staff through one site in Cardiff and two satellite clinics for staff have been introduced at UHW and UHL.

"We are working closely with GP practices across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan who will begin delivering the vaccinations to their patients who are 80 and over at the practice.

Barry And District News:

"We are constantly reviewing our capacity in line with vaccination delivery and will mobilise the centre in Barry when it is needed.”

All GP practices in the Central Vale Cluster, including Sully Surgery, have agreed to provide the University of Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine.

A spokesperson for Sully Surgery said: "Currently this will only be to immunise patients aged 80 and over, excluding patients in residential or care homes as the Health Board will be organising this.
"There are a number of planning activities that practices have to complete before we can start this programme, including training for practice teams, documentation and arrangement of delivery of the vaccine.
"Once everything is in place we will start calling our patients aged 80 and above to offer appointments. Please do not call the practice with enquiries about the vaccine/appointments for the vaccine.
"At this time, we have not been instructed by the Health Board to vaccinate patients under 80 years or those at risk (including those who were advised to shield). However we will continue to keep patients informed."