COVID-19 vaccination programme (stock and distribution): as at 4 March 2021

This weekly statistical release includes management information on the number of vaccine doses not suitable for use in Wales and local health boards. We’re publishing this to support the commitment to keep individuals up to date about the vaccination roll out, as set out in the Vaccination Strategy for Wales.

This release does not include statistics on people vaccinated. Data on vaccinations given are published daily and weekly, on the Public Health Wales Rapid COVID-19 Surveillance Dashboard, with the weekly data providing more detailed breakdowns.

There are currently two types of vaccines being supplied and administered for coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wales, Pfizer BioNTech and Oxford AstraZeneca. The first dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine was administered on 8 December 2020 and the first dose of the Oxford AstraZeneca on 4 January 2021

An accompanying table, with the data shown in this release is available separately.

Last week we published an ad hoc release on vaccine doses allocated to Wales and doses supplied to local health boards. From next week, publication of this release will move to a Wednesday, rather than Tuesday and will include information on vaccine doses allocated to Wales. This means the next statistical release in this series will be published on Wednesday 17 March 2021. Information on wastage will move to being as at the Sunday each week, rather than the current position of being as at the Thursday.

As at 4 March at 5pm

0.5% of vaccine doses were reported as not suitable for use. Split by vaccine type, 0.9% of Pfizer BioNTech and 0.1% of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine doses were reported as not suitable for use. This is based on information reported in the Welsh Immunisation System. There may be additional unusable doses that have not been recorded.

In this release one dose refers to one dose of vaccine, whereas a course of vaccination is made up of two doses. This is the same for both types of vaccine.

NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) data from the Welsh Immunisation System (WIS) is used for vaccine doses not suitable for use.

We are publishing these data to provide a weekly summary of operational vaccine activity in Wales, including doses not suitable for use, broken down by vaccine type and local health board. From next week we will include data on stocks allocated to Wales as well as doses not suitable for use.

The launch of the programme for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine was on 8 December 2020. On 4 January 2021, the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine was rolled out in Wales.

Vaccines unsuitable for use include doses that fail quality assurance on initial inspection, doses that fail quality assurance following preparation and vials/doses which expire during the vaccination session.

The data are taken from management information and are subject to change. They have not been subject to the same validation processes undertaken for official statistics releases. We are publishing these data to provide a weekly summary of vaccination operations in Wales.

This statistical release is evolving and we appreciate feedback to improve the content.

Context

The data used in this release is management information which is used to support COVID-19 vaccination operations. We are publishing these data to provide a timely summary of vaccination operational activity. The data have not undergone the same level of quality assurance as official statistics, and are subject to future revisions.

NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) data from the Welsh Immunisation System (WIS) is used for vaccine doses not suitable for use.

This information helps to monitor the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme.

Relevance

Daily data on the number of people who have received vaccinations is published on the Public Health Wales (PHW) Rapid COVID-19 Surveillance dashboard. The daily release shows the cumulative number of vaccinations administered – for both first and second doses. The daily figures give a timely update on the roll out of the vaccination programme, although the actual number of people vaccinated will be higher due to ongoing data entry. PHW also publish weekly, more detailed data on vaccinations through the dashboard. This includes data at local health board level and will be expanded to cover other topics over time.

Information for the public about the vaccination is available on the PHW website.

Accuracy

A digital infrastructure for scheduling appointments, recording, and reporting on vaccination activity was developed by the NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) to meet the needs of the vaccination programme called the Welsh Immunisation System (WIS). Data on vaccine doses not suitable use is extracted from WIS and reflects the position as at Thursday of each week 5pm.

Some vaccination data may be recorded on paper records, which may still need to be entered at the time of data extraction and reporting. Actual numbers may vary and will be revised in future releases as more information is recorded.

Vaccine data provided by the distributor are undergoing quality assurance and as such are subject to future revision.

In this release vaccine figures are reported in terms of doses. For both vaccines each vial contains a number of doses.

Prior to 26 January 2021 the product information for the Pfizer vaccine states that each vial contains 5 doses, however in some cases it may be possible to withdraw a further sixth dose from some vials. The use of this additional dose is supported by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). From 26 January 2021, the MHRA updated their regulations to state that Pfizer vials officially contain 6 doses. The number of doses of Pfizer vaccine has been calculated on the basis of the date on which vaccine was received in Wales.

The product information for the Pfizer vaccine states that each vial contains 5 doses, however in some cases it may be possible to withdraw a further sixth dose from some vials. The use of this additional dose is supported by the MHRA.

The product information for the AstraZeneca vaccine states that vials contain 8 or 10 doses (depending on the presentation), however in some cases it may be possible to withdraw a further (9^th or 11^th) dose from some vials.  The use of this additional dose is supported by the MHRA.

There are two different presentations of the AstraZeneca vaccine provided:

• 80 dose packs (Ten 4 ml vials with at least 8 doses per vial)
• 100 dose packs (Ten 5 ml vials with at least 10 doses per vial)

The percentage of doses unsuitable for use is calculated by using the total doses unsuitable for use by the total doses administered plus total doses unsuitable for use.

Timeliness and punctuality

The data in this release is from 8 December 2020 onwards.

Accessibility and clarity

This statistical release has been pre-announced and then published on the Statistics and Research section of our website. It is accompanied by an Open Document Spreadsheet to allow users to have direct access to the data.

Comparability

Public Health Wales produce a daily surveillance dashboard where users can access the most up to date information on the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered.

England and Northern Ireland do not currently publish data on vaccination stock and supply.

Data for COVID-19 vaccine doses administered for England is published on the COVID-19 Vaccinations pages of the NHS England website, Public Health England’s COVID-19 vaccine monitoring reports and as daily data within the GOV.UK Coronavirus (COVID-19) dashboard.

Data for COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in Scotland is published by Public Health Scotland within the COVID-19 in Scotland dashboard, and on the Coronavirus in the UK dashboard on the gov.uk website. Data on doses allocated is published within the Coronavirus (COVID-19): daily data for Scotland publication by the Scottish Government.

Data for COVID-19 vaccine doses administered for Northern Ireland is published on the GOV.UK Coronavirus (COVID-19) dashboard.

National Statistics status

These statistics are not National Statistics. However, as far as has been practicable, they have been collected and validated in accordance with the pillars and principles within the Code of Practice for Statistics. We continue to develop the data collection and quality assurance process to improve the data.

These statistics have been produced quickly in response to developing world events.

Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG)

The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales. The Act puts in place seven wellbeing goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the wellbeing goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before Senedd Cymru. The 46 national indicators were laid in March 2016.

Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the well-being goals and associated technical information is available in the Well-being of Wales report.

Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and be used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans.

Next update

This is currently a weekly statistical release. It will be published at 9.30am every Wednesday. We will review the frequency in line with changing user need.

The next release will be on Wednesday 17 March.

We want your feedback

We welcome any feedback on any aspect of these statistics which can be provided by email to kas.covid19@gov.wales

Statistician: Rachel Dolman
Telephone: 0300 025 1612
Email: kas.covid19@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099

SFR 70/2021