PUBLIC Health Wales' Incident Director for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), Dr Giri Shankar has explained what needs to happen for the nation to fain herd immunity.

In a social media video, he asked a question from the public about how Wales could gain herd immunity as the vaccine roll-put continues.

Dr Shankar said: "As the NHS rolls out vaccinations to the population of Wales, we would like to cover as much of our population as possible with both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

"Current understanding is that a large proportion of our population need to be vaccinated in order to provide herd immunity.

"This large number could mean anywhere between 70 per cent to 80 per cent of our population.

"The main reason for that is that vaccination protects the individual from severe complications of the infection, but to some extent it won't prevent the transmission of virus from one person to another.

"Therefore if a lot of people are vaccinated then it would offer a good chance of us having herd immunity."

He added: "The point to remember, also, is that the current understanding is based on the type of viruses that are circulating in the community now.

"We know that this coronavirus has the ability to change its structure and form and therefore make the potentially make the vaccine effectiveness less.

"Therefore we have to be very clear and closely monitor the emergence of any new variants and if that does happen, and if it has any impact on the vaccine, our vaccination coverage rates have to be adjusted accordingly."