Cardiff and Vale health board: fourth mass vaccination centre

The health board currently has three mass vaccination centres - one in Barry, one in Splott, and one in Pentwyn - and will be opening another Cardiff-based one towards the end of March.

They are working in partnership with Cardiff Council and Vale of Glamorgan Council to increase capacity for vaccinations and the new Bayside MVC will enable additional capacity of up to 2,500 vaccines per day, which will be dependent on vaccine supply.

The new centre is being developed on the former Toys R Us site at the International Sports Village - this site will be accessible for residents in Eastern Vale and people in Cardiff.

Along with the mass vaccination centres, all 60 GP practices across the two counties are taking part in the vaccination programme, with community pharmacies set to join the programme from April.

Executive Director of Public Health at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Fiona Kinghorn, said: “This is the largest vaccination programme the NHS has even been involved in and to date tremendous progress has been made.

"So far we have vaccinated over a third of our adult population with first doses and some are now receiving their second doses which provides the best protection.

“We are working closely with all of our partners and stakeholders to enable us to deliver the vaccine to as many people as possible as quickly as possible and have been grateful to those that have supported us through this process.

"Over the next few weeks we anticipate our capacity to increase in line with the new centre and support of our primary care contractors.”

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Vale Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care, Cllr Ben Gray, said: "More than 150,000 vaccinations have now been given in Cardiff and the Vale and the collective effort to reach this number has been nothing short of phenomenal.

"The Vale of Glamorgan Council has worked closely with our partners in the health board and Cardiff Council to ensure we are able to administer all available vaccine as quickly as possible.

"This new centre for Cardiff and the Vale will allow us to move through the next priority groups even more quickly and bring the end of the pandemic closer still."

In addition to the new centre, the health board is also scoping out opportunities to increase local access in the Western Vale of Glamorgan. Discussions are taking place with GP practices in the area and community pharmacies to provide additional vaccination capacity to residents living in this area.

To date the Health Board has delivered more than 155,000 vaccines with 133,257 of these being first doses.

Priority Groups 5-7 are currently being contacted for their first doses while groups 1-4 will start to be contacted for their second doses over the coming months. All first doses for Groups 1-9 will be completed by April 19.