By Joe Strong

University students will only receive the vaccine once the more vulnerable age groups have been treated, says the chief executive of NHS Wales, Dr Andrew Goodall.

Dr Goodall and Dr Frank Atherton, chief medical officer for Wales, said that pressure is continuing to mount on Welsh hospitals despite an overall fall in infection rates. This means that we should all continue to follow government guidelines and stay at home.

Wales passed the 5,000 death mark yesterday and the UK has recorded its highest amount of excess deaths since the Second World War.

327,000 doses were recently delivered to NHS Wales. Consisting of 280,000 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and 47,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab.

After the briefing, Dr Andrew Goodall and Dr Frank Atherton, claimed that student health care workers will receive the proper personal protective equipment when working with Covid patients. They also claimed all students working in these conditions will be vaccinated.

Both men agreed that protecting student health care workers is a top priority for the NHS.

The pair confirmed that people in vulnerable age groups would be vaccinated first. Students and younger people, who are for the most part, less vulnerable, will receive the vaccine afterwards.

The Welsh Government recently announced that all people over 50 will be offered the vaccine by spring and all adults will be offered the vaccine by autumn this year. Teenagers will receive their Covid jabs shortly after.

Image by Morgan Bishop