PEMBROKESHIRE County Council has confirmed that its priorities in vaccinating its staff against coronavirus are in line with governmental guidelines.

Concerns have been raised that staff in mainstream schools in the county have not yet been offered an appointment to be vaccinated - yet other staff, including some of those currently working from home, have already received appointments to attend the vaccination centre in Haverfordwest.

Speaking this week on behalf of all local authorities in the Hywel Dda University Health Board area, the board's director of public health, Ros Jervis, “The decision was made this week to extend the vaccine invitation to staff groups critical to the Covid response, without which we would not be able to run essential Covid response services.

“Many of these staff are currently redeployed from frontline and patient facing roles and employed by the health board, social care services, independent or third sector care services and fall within the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority group 2.

“The invitation was only extended once we were absolutely certain frontline staff had been provided ample opportunity to receive a vaccine and once all stand-by reserve lists were exhausted. This approach has led us to having one of the lowest vaccine wastage figures, despite the challenges of our rural location.

“I’d like to reassure the public that vaccinating this essential group of staff has in no way delayed our rollout to the wider population and I can confirm the first invitations for members of the public to attend our mass vaccination centres will be issued this week.”

Welsh education minister Kirsty Williams recently stated that she wanted teachers to receive their jabs as soon as possible, but not at the expense of more vulnerable people.

"I fully stand behind the work of the JCVI in how it has identified who is most at risk of serious harm or death as a result of contracting Covid-19," Ms Williams told the Senedd.

"Members of staff, both in school and those that support education in other roles, will receive their vaccination in line with their relative risk of harm."