03/19/2024

Wales News Online

Local & National News for Wales

Mark Drakeford thanks NHS staff as he urges vaccine take up in Wales

WELSH Labour leader and First Minister Mark Drakeford has praised the work of Wales’ “incredible” vaccination teams after visiting the first pop-up centre in a Cardiff mosque.

More than 1.6m people have said yes to the vaccine so far in Wales and take-up rates in many of the priority groups are 90% or higher, the latest figures show.

Speaking after visiting the first vaccination clinic to be held in a mosque during Ramadan in Wales – at the Jalalia Mosque and Islamic Education Centre, in Riverside, Cardiff – Mark Drakeford said:

“Wales’ incredible vaccination programme continues to go from strength to strength, supported by our Welsh Labour Government.

“There is very strong support for the vaccine in communities across Wales – take-up has been really high, with nine out of 10 people in many of the top nine priority groups having their first dose.

“More than half a million people have already completed the two-dose course of the vaccine and we remain on course to offer vaccination to all eligible adults in Wales by mid-July.

“The success of our vaccination programme is thanks to all the hard work of the thousands of fantastic NHS staff and volunteers working in centres like this one at the Jalalia Mosque; in mass vaccination centres and in GP surgeries all over Wales.

“I would encourage everyone to say yes to the vaccine.”

The Jalalia Mosque is hosting a vaccination clinic every Sunday afternoon to help ensure members of the local community are protected against coronavirus.

Dr Sayma Ahmed, one of the GPs behind Muslim Doctors Cymru, which is running vaccination clinics in mosques in Wales, said:

“We’re here at Jalalia Mosque, which is the fifth mosque in Wales where we have been running vaccination centres but it’s the first to be running a vaccination centre in Ramadan.

“We’d like to tell everybody that it is safe to have the vaccine and it’s permissible to have the vaccine during Ramadan.

“The vaccine is safe; so please when you’re offered your vaccine, please come and get vaccinated.”

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