THERE is a "very real sense of urgency" in the Welsh Government's approach to rolling out the coronavirus vaccine.

Those were the words of the health minister Vaughan Gething, speaking at the coronavirus update briefing earlier today.

This comes after first minister Mark Drakeford, on Friday, told Sky News that distributing the vaccine was "not a sprint and neither is it a competition"

However, Mr Gething said that the Welsh Government was "trying to go as fast as possible".

"I have said it's a race against the virus," he said.

"The figures do demonstrate an increase in the programme."

However, he stressed that there was a risk of "getting too lost in marathon or sprint".

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"It will take months to get through this," he said.

"Of course, we are trying to go as fast as possible though.

"As fast as we can vaccinate people, the more we can protect people from harm.

"There is a very real sense of urgency in the government and our NHS."

He said that rates of vaccination will now increase as a result of advice having changed.

"We know that, with the Pfizer vaccine, the instruction was to hold back 50 per cent for the second dose," he said.

"The rules then changed around the new year so we could push it out further.

"You will see the rate increasing.

"We are trying to cover as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

"I'm grateful to everyone working to deliver this programme.

"It really is a Team Wales approach."