NEW figures show that the North Wales health board has administered more than 10,500 vaccine jabs so far, the highest number of any health board in Wales.

The data published by the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board and circulated to officials and politicians on Friday morning, shows 2,234 people were vaccinated on Thursday and 2,448 on Wednesday.

Public Health Wales published its weekly vaccination update yesterday, it showed that just 5,884 had received the jab in North Wales up to the week ending January 3.

Jack Sargeant, MS for Alyn and Deeside, said on social media: "As of yesterday evening, more people had received the vaccine in North Wales than any other part of Wales.

"Following yesterday’s figures I attended an urgent meeting with the Health Board and was pleased to see the updated figure in the table below.

"I will continue to meet with the Health Board and ask the questions that residents are asking me.

"Following requests from myself and other MS, figures will be updated daily from Monday."

At the press conference on January 8, the First Minister answered many questions about the vaccine administration.

He said nobody 'wanted to start new year in lockdown', but we can still look forward to 'better 2021'.

He said around 50,000 people in Wales have had their first vaccine, and thousands more will follow.

Across Wales, staff are trying to vaccinate as many people as quickly and as safely as possible.

Wales started with seven vaccination centres which increased to 22 as of Friday and will rise to 35 soon.

Next week 75 GPs will be able to vaccinate, that will rise to 100 at the end of the week and over 200 at the end of the month.

Mobile units are also in use and the roll-out will 'get faster'.

He said the approved vaccines offer 'chance of a different and better future' but for now we need to stay home.

The First Minister was asked about a differences in approach and whether Wales will 'always be in fourth place'.

He said the differences are 'marginal', but they have put more emphasis on vaccinating front-line staff.

Welsh Government is using the same list of priority groups as the UK and all are working hard to vaccinate as many people as possible.

He was also asked about meeting the same target previously pledged by Prime Minister Boris Johnson over vaccinating the first four priority groups by mid-February.

He said he heard Prime Minister’s comments about England, and 'shares the same ambition' but it depends on the ramping up of capacity to deliver vaccine, but crucially also on the supply of the vaccine coming to Wales.

The FM told the nation that Wales has 22,000 doses of the Oxford vaccine and they expect that to go to 25,000 doses next week, and up to 80,000 in the week after that.

They have more doses of Pfizer vaccine than they do of Oxford vaccine.

A daily number of vaccinations will be published daily as of next week and the Welsh Government plan will also be published next week, but Mr Drakeford said Welsh Government is being asked for 'all sorts of details about programme' and he has not been willing to divert people from the job of getting the programme in place.

He said at this point, it is more important ensuring there is work being done to ensure vaccinations are happening, rather than answering questions.

He said setting targets when you don’t know how much supply you have, does not make sense. He said everybody is working hard to secure supply we need, to get it to the places where it will be used.

The 'real story people need to know about', is the thousands who are being vaccinated, he added.

Asked if the Welsh NHS can deliver vaccine at same rate as rest of UK, he said there is no reason why not as the NHS is used to mass vaccination programmes.

The FM said the NHS is 'under strain' due to people with coronavirus and 2,000 fewer people working compared with December to September due to illness but staff 'remain committed'.