PEOPLE with the most severe underlying conditions in the next set of coronavirus vaccination priority groups will be the first to be offered a jab, said one the leaders of Wales' vaccination programme.

Dr Sally Lewis, clinical operational lead for the national vaccination programme, was asked at today's Welsh Government coronavirus briefing if there is a priority system within the 16-64-year-old 'at risk’ priority group, where people with more serious underlying health conditions would be offered a vaccine first.

"Of course we want to immunise the most vulnerable first and for example, those who may be severely immuno-suppressed, we would want to try and reach those people first," said Dr Lewis.

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"We have to go by the guidance of JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) of course but I know that also, colleagues here in Public Health Wales are working through those clinically vulnerable groups to do just that sort of assessment."

First Minister Mark Drakeford said there will be a greater degree of flexibility when offering people in priority groups five to nine their first vaccine dose.

"I think one of the things we will see in the next five groups is that in order to get through the volumes that we have to get through, we won't be going just five, six, seven... down the line," he said.

"People will be being called in for vaccination across the five groups and that's because we have so many hundreds of thousands of people to vaccinate.

"But the system will need a bit of flexibility to make sure that every single appointment can be kept, and every single dose of vaccine can be used.

"So I think we're going to see a bit more fluidity between the groups than we did in the first four - but that will be to make sure that we complete the vaccination programme as fast as we can for everybody."