Mark Drakeford has said he is optimistic about Wales being able to get through the Covid-19 crisis despite the continued emergence of new strains of the virus.
He said that the more easily spread Kent variant is now dominant in Wales with Vaughan Gething saying in his press conference that 13 cases of the South African variant have been identified in Wales to date - an increase of three from last week.
Ten of these cases have clear links to either South Africa or to international travel but in the other three cases, there is currently no clear evidence of how they may have caught the virus.
Two of these cases are in North Wales, in Anglesey and in Conwy with the third case in Neath Port Talbot.
When WalesOnline asked the First Minister at a vaccination centre in Cardiff if the public should be concerned about the new strain he said: “It's very important to say but there are new variants all the time. That's the nature of viruses. It's always changing trying to find ways to make itself more successful.
“Our systems, particularly through Public Health Wales with our genomic capacity are some of the greatest in the world. They are always looking for evidence that the virus has adapted into something else that can succeed.
“Obviously we are still concerned about the Kent variant which has become the dominant variant here in Wales. But we know quite a lot about that now. We look to see if a Kent variant itself is developing in new ways and at the moment. We also know that there are cases of the South African variant here in Wales.”
The vaccines currently being rolled out in Wales seem to provide some protection against the new strains. However if the virus continues to mutate, the First Minister believes it is likely that people will have to be vaccinated more regularly.
“It is going to be something we are living with,” he said. “I don't think this is like a measles vaccine where you have it once and it is all over for a lifetime.
“It is much more likely to be like the flu, where every year there are new variants and every year a new vaccine has to be developed and every year you have to go and have your flu jab.
“But vaccines will develop as well. Just as the virus itself mutates so there are very clever people working all the time to make vaccines more effective in the future. There will be new possibilities as well as new challenges.”
Mr Drakeford also indicated that it may not be necessary for everyone to be vaccinated every year - just those in the high risk groups.
“We know now that the existing variance that some parts suffer more serious effects from the virus than others,” he said. “This is why we have the priority groups. We start with the people who are most likely to have a serious impact of the virus.
“In the future we will need to take account of the effectiveness of the vaccine, the nature of the Variant and the extent to which different groups in the population suffer more than others.”
The Welsh Labour leader said that the development of new variants elsewhere in the world was one of the biggest issues that we face and that a great deal of time in briefing with experts is spent assessing the threat they pose.
“It is practically every day,” he said. “We will be briefed by our chief medical officer and chief scientists and the people who are involved in the front line in every part of Wales. I came this morning from a meeting with the chief medical officer on exactly this topic and will be meeting again this afternoon. It's a daily occurrence to us. What the government has to do is try and keep abreast as much as we can of developments anywhere in the globe.”
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The Welsh Government have indicated that they are currently discussing the the UK Government the possibility of a coordinated reopening.
Speaking at Plenary in the Senedd on Tuesday, he said that the mass vaccination programme “gives us hope that, as we go further into this year, it will be possible to restore some of the freedoms to people in Wales that they have had to manage without over recent weeks.
“But all of that is based on foundations that can shift at any moment, and the examples that the leader of the opposition pointed to—the Kent variant and developments there, the South African variant—while things are moving in the right direction, there's a fragility about all of that.
“As far as co-ordinating dates for reopening are concerned… I'm pleased to say that we now have regular meetings with the UK Government every Wednesday—and a number of days in between most weeks now—where we are able to talk about common approaches to things that happen in all parts of the United Kingdom.”
However he also said that if Wales was in a different position to England he would consider reopening parts of the Welsh economy before if the data supported it.
“I wouldn't want to deny Welsh businesses or outdoor attractions the chance of opening earlier if our circumstances allowed that to happen.” he said.
