Here's the latest Argus column from Blaenau Gwent MS Alun Davies:

WALES'S vaccination programme has continued to go from strength to strength over the last month, with the result that we now also have the highest percentage of people having received their second dose of any nation in the UK.

This has been a phenomenal achievement by our NHS, key workers and our armed forces which is helping to save lives, keep our communities safe and put us on a pathway to safely reopening our economy and society every single day.

It reminds us – once again – of the incredible debt that we owe to our frontline staff and why the least we can do to repay it will be to ensure they receive a genuine and fair pay raise.

The success of the vaccine programme also allows us to focus on how we recover from Covid-19 as a country and as an economy.

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Last week saw the Welsh Government’s budget and, despite very difficult circumstances, it was welcome to see a strong commitment to and continued support for people and businesses – additional funding for hardship payments and further business support to help protect jobs and incomes.

Over the course of the pandemic, the Welsh Government’s package of support for businesses has been the most generous within the UK and has ensured that over 160,000 people keep their jobs. It’s vital that further support continues into our recovery from the pandemic.

But our recovery is also about helping our NHS and our communities deal with the significant number of non-Covid conditions.

After I suffered a cardiac arrest almost a year ago, I have been campaigning for increased training in and greater availability of lifesaving skills and resources.

It was only the skills and knowledge of bystanders who could administer CPR and source a defibrillator that enabled me to receive the emergency care from paramedics, nurses and surgeons promptly afterwards.

Well over 90 per cent of people who suffer what I did do not have this outcome, and I feel a profound responsibility to change this.

That’s why I was particularly glad that Government are now including a requirement for schools to include compulsory teaching of lifesaving care such as CPR under legislation for a new curriculum last week.

These are the skills that saved my life and this requirement will mean they will save countless others - I am deeply humbled to play a part in helping to make this happen.