Montgomeryshire MS Russell George has called on the Welsh Government to appoint a vaccination minister for the country.

The Welsh Conservative Member of Senedd said a minister responsible for the deployment of coronavirus vaccines is needed to speed up delivery across Wales.

In November, Boris Johnson appointed Nadhim Zahawi as the health minister responsible for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in England.

Reacting to the publication of the Welsh Government's plan to deploy coronavirus vaccinations on Monday (January 11), Mr George said: “I am pleased that a vaccine strategy has now been published by the Welsh Government.

“We now need a rapid ramping up of the vaccine delivery in Wales. Over the weekend, around 200,000 doses of the vaccine were sat in fridges across Wales, instead of in people’s arms.

"This is unacceptable and I believe that the Welsh Government now needs to appoint a Vaccines Minister to drive plans forward in Wales.

“I also want the Welsh Government to publish daily vaccination figures for each priority group.

“As you can imagine, our own Health board in Powys are having to cope with a number of factors. My thanks go to those that are involved in the track and trace and the vaccination programme."

County Times: Vaccine deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi giving a statement on the the roll out of the coronavirus vaccine across the UK in the House of Commons, London.Vaccine deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi giving a statement on the the roll out of the coronavirus vaccine across the UK in the House of Commons, London.

Mr George's calls are echoed by shadow health minister for the Welsh Conservatives Andrew RT Davies, who has accused the Welsh Government of delivering a “stuttering start” to its vaccination programme.

He told BBC Wales: “If you have a dedicated vaccination minister, that individual will be responsible for driving this right across Wales, because we’ve seen week after week now that we’ve been lagging behind other parts of the United Kingdom.

Adam Price, leader of Plaid Cymru, said he hoped there would now be “sufficient urgency” from the Welsh Government in terms of delivering the vaccine.

“I think we do need a greater sense of urgency from the Welsh Government because the one thing we didn’t hear today in terms of targets is when are they going to close that gap that they’ve admitted to between Wales – in terms of the level of vaccination – and the rest of the other nations in the UK.”