AS the coronavirus vaccination programme progresses, care must continue to be taken by everyone in following whatever restrictions and guidelines are in place, said First Minister Mark Drakeford - even those who have received two doses.

The aim in Wales and the rest of the UK is to have first doses given to everyone in the top four priority groups by mid-February. These four groups comprise:

  • Residents in a care home for older adults, and their carers;
  • All those aged 80 years and over, and frontline health and social care workers;
  • All those aged 75 years and over;
  • All those aged 70 years and over, and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals aged 16-69.

But even if this ambition is realised, there remain five other priority groups and then people aged under 50, and it will be many months before any part of the UK gets anywhere near vaccinating everyone.

First doses of coronavirus offer a measure of protection, enough say experts to enable the widening of the initially recommended gap between doses, to allow as many people as possible to benefit.

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But it is not known yet whether those who have been vaccinated can still carry and transmit the virus, even if they are better protected themselves.

And Mr Drakeford - asked at today's Welsh Government coronavirus briefing about how people who have had one or even two doses of vaccine should behave - said they should "continue to be careful, and to be sensitive to the context we are in".

"The first people vaccinated will still be living in communities where people will go on contracting the virus," he said.

He added that the vaccines will offer "significant levels of protection, delivered in a context where coronavirus is still widespread".

It is a matter, he said, of recognising the new protection, but "also recognising that there will be many weeks and months ahead where coronavirus will continue to be a feature of all our lives".

"A precautionary approach would still be recommended," he said.